PUUNENE - Maui Economic Opportunity Inc. will likely break ground for construction of its new $9 million transportation center sometime in 2010, the nonprofit's executive director, Sandy Baz, said on Tuesday.
Baz said the project's planning and design phase is nearly complete, and the Maui County Land Use Committee will host a final hearing on the project in September.
"We're just moving along with everything," Baz said. "And, hopefully, we'll be able to break ground next year."
For more than two years, MEO worked closely with Alexander & Baldwin Inc. on a consolidated transportation center on 10 acres of former sugar cane fields.
A&B sold the land at a deep discount in order to assist the nonprofit, which in addition to its many other programs provides transportation to the elderly, disabled, children and poor. The facility has received almost $2 million in state and county funding, while most of the rest is from private donations.
The transit center is expected to integrate all MEO transportation operations in the same location and ensure the continuation and improvement of transportation services. The site has immediate access to Mokulele Highway.
At the transit hub, passengers will be able to transfer to other bus routes, and MEO will store its ever-expanding fleet of mostly lightweight buses. It will also house a bus maintenance facility as well as some offices.
MEO officials have said that the project would accommodate the agency's growth for the next 20 years.
