State Transportation officials broke ground Monday on a new maintenance center at the Lewes Transit Hub. It’s the latest addition to the almost one-year-old facility.
The Lewes Hub has increased ridership near the beaches by 20%, officials say, and with increased service comes an increased need for maintenance. Delaware Transit Corporation CEO John Sisson says as it is the state is ill-equipped to maintain its bus fleet.
“Through the summer we put a lot of miles on them. We do some really, really minor maintenance in Rehoboth now, but we do all the maintenance back in Georgetown. It really isn’t efficient for us, and with the increased service, that facility in Georgetown couldn’t handle all the additional service as well,” said Sisson.
Sisson adds this means DART will add a few jobs as well.
“We’ll need more maintenance people, people to clean the buses, fuel the buses. It will create year-round jobs at this facility,” he said.
The three-bay maintenance facility is designed for repair on diesel and propane-fueled vehicles as well as new electronic buses set to join the fleet by next summer.
The $9.4 million project is mostly funded by the Federal Transit Administration.
The groundbreaking took place as the DART bus service begins its daily beach season schedule this week.
