A new transit center is planned for the Riverstone area of Coeur d’Alene. Kootenai County Public Transportation Director Jody Bieze says the project, to be built at the northwest junction of Riverstone Drive and Seltice Way, is out for bids through Aug. 14.

The 4-acre parcel on which the 2,600-square-foot Riverstone Transit Center will stand was jointly purchased by Kootenai County and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe of Indians; the county owns 52 percent of the land.

While Bieze declines to discuss project cost estimates while bids are out, she says it’s a federally-funded multimillion dollar project.

“The building will have a reception area, an assessment room for people with disabilities to assess their eligibility either for paratransit or to ride the fixed-route buses,” Bieze says. “There will be office space, a driver breakroom, a dispatch, storage, restrooms inside for the drivers and staff, as well as outdoor public restrooms.”

Coffman Engineers Inc. is the lead consultant, Bieze says; ALSC Architects PS is designing the transit center.

The design is called “The Great Divide,” Bieze says, referring to the way the building will divide the bus loop from an 80-stall parking lot. Bieze says she expects the project to receive a notice to proceed in early September.

“We anticipate the start-to-finish to take approximately 300 days once we have issued a notice to proceed,” Bieze says. “For phase one, which is the portion that went out for bid, it’s anticipated that it would be (finished) no later than the end of June 2019.”

Although some have taken to the internet to voice their opposition to the transit center—a Facebook page titled Stop the Riverstone Transit Center in Kootenai County has 75 likes—Bieze says those who use the bus service will be excited to see the A, B, and C routes—which serve Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, and Hayden, respectively—join up at Riverstone.

“Individuals from Post Falls on the B route will come into the transit center and be able to transfer to go to Coeur d’Alene or go to Hayden, and the same would be for any of those,” Bieze says. “I think there is a groundswell of support in that regard.”