The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced today that as part of the State of Good Repair Bus Initiative, Metro has been awarded $47.75 million by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“Today’s announcement is welcome news for the region and the funding provided will go a long way toward maintaining Metro’s transportation system,” said LA County Supervisor and Metro Board Chair Don Knabe. “This funding is essential as we strive to both maintain and operate one of the largest transportation systems in the United States.”

Under the FTA’s State of Good Repair Bus Initiative, providing funding to maintain the nation’s bus and rail systems is an important element if public transportation systems are to provide safe and reliable service to millions of daily riders.

Metro plans to use the funding to construct a new three-story bus operations and maintenance facility in downtown Los Angeles to meet the agency’s demand for bus service. The new Division 13 facility is located adjacent to Metro headquarters near Union Station and is planned to accommodate and provide service for up to 200 compressed natural gas (CNG) buses and will include up to a 16,300 square- foot bus operations administration building and up to a 500,000 square-foot bus maintenance building.

The facility has been designed to achieve Gold certification in accordance with the USGBC Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) guidelines and will provide a platform to perform modernization and upgrades to other aging bus maintenance facilities across Los Angeles County. Design and entitlement work for the project have already been completed and the project is expected to go out to bid for contractors in January 2011. Construction could start as soon as June 2011 and the project will be completed in Spring 2013.

“Metro is appreciative of the FTA’s commitment in funding bus and rail maintenance programs under the State of Good Repair Bus Initiative,” said Metro CEO Art Leahy. “This funding will pay for a state-of-the-art bus operating and maintenance facility greatly needed to better serve our customers.”

This federal grant aids Metro’s 30/10 Initiative by freeing up funding resources. The grant money will relieve State of Good Repair needs that could not otherwise be deferred and that, in turn, enables Metro to focus on the accelerations of the Measure R program.

Today’s announcement was made by U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff as part of a $766 million allocation in ‘State of Good Repair’ dollars for the nation’s urban and rural bus systems.