Dear Community,
Since our last update in March 2017, we’ve expanded our team and vision. The project now has benefitted from the addition of Lafayette artist, CeCe Cole, architect Joel Breaux, structural engineer Alison Lognion and Lafayette Transit System Engineer Warren Abadie. Since then, the visual direction has moved away from the umbrella concept, and has taken a more creative, interactive and culturally significant design. The current design is modeled after something you would find in nature (i.e., a tree that is a natural shelter provider). The inclusion of local artists in this process has become a living laboratory for the city of Lafayette to experiment with including more creatives in community investments and improvements for better, more innovative solutions.
Our project has stayed true to its mission, and has maintained the $1,500-$3,000 target budget per stop and maintained the same goal of providing shelter, seating, lighting, route information and trash cans to each stop. We’re currently sourcing with different vendors in town to build the components that make up the bus stop. These materials include a combination of aluminum (pole and shelter braces), polycarbonate (shelter with textured pattern) and concrete or rubber-dipped metal for seating.
We continue to learn as the project team has grown and design has changed. When approaching an improved rider experience, it is important to keep in mind: maintenance, replication, sustainability, replacement, cost, predictability and putting the rider needs first. We’ve kept this in mind throughout the entire process.
While, the offer from the Mayor to utilize a staff structural engineer has reduced the cost for research and development, it has added additional time to the process as well. As for our new timeline, we anticipate completed structural engineer drawings in December 2017, and will have a completed prototype by February 2018. This leaves our final timeline to having the final installation of the prototype completed by Spring 2018 and implementation beginning in early 2019. We realize that the timeline and vision for the project has changed since its inception, and we’ve had to sacrifice our timelines for the sake of ensuring rider experience and a quality design. We’re still very confident in the direction, pace, and bus shelter design.
Thanks,
Brittany Broussard and Kate Durio (Team Bus Stop Shelter)