Eco-friendly Bus Depot

GO's new environmentally friendly, 220,000 sq. ft., $45-million, state-of-the-art bus facility in Streetsville, is the first LEED® transit building in the Greater Toronto Area. It houses and services over 200 buses, including GO's double decker buses, and features two indoor automated bus-washing stations.

As GO ridership continues to grow, the GO Transit Streetsville Bus Facility has the capability to expand to meet demand. The building was designed with flexibility in mind. Cleverly, its precast concrete walls can be easily knocked out for future expansion.

Naturally, sustainability was a key design factor. The building was designed to save more than 40% over standard energy codes. Some of the design features include:

• A 100% highly reflective white roof and green roof over the administration area that has a reducing heat island effect, as well as a reducing air conditioning loads;
• Low-irrigation green roof over administration areas; 
• Subsequently filtered rainwater can be used for irrigation of exterior landscaping;
• Finishes with reduced levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCS);
• An on-site co-generation facility to produce electricity and usage of waste energy to heat facility.

RJCs structural engineers and parking facility engineers teamed up to design the facility with long span steel trusses and minimum supporting columns, to achieve good vehicle flow and minimal obstructions to the driver's view.

As the schedule was tight due to delivery of the new double decker busses, the foundations system and the speed of erection of the superstructure was essential. Close coordination with GO Personnel, Buttcon, Skyhawk and Canam allowed RJC to successfully complete the GO Transit Streetsville Bus Facility in only 18 months.