sbX Bus Project Closer to Becoming a Reality

Omintrans’ Board of Directors recently awarded the construction contract for the anticipated and sometimes controversial E Street Corridor sbX Bus Rapid Transit Line, the first to serve the Inland Empire.

Construction will be a joint venture between Griffith Company, a general contractor, and Comet Electric, Inc., which had the lowest bid of $64,700,603. The bid is roughly 18 percent below original engineer estimates, Omnitrans officials said.

The board approved the contract July 6. Construction was scheduled to start in the fall, said David Rutherford, spokesman for the Omnitrans’ sbX Project.

The project, which runs through Loma Linda and San Bernardino, is estimated to cost nearly $192 million, including design and engineering work that is already completed, 14 rapid transit vehicles, which have been ordered, and planned maintenance facility upgrades, officials said.

More than 80 percent of the funding comes from federal sources, 8 percent from the state and 10 percent from local funds – 3.7 percent of which comes from in-kind permit fee waivers, Omnitrans officials said.

The rapid transit 60-foot articulated buses will travel from Palm Avenue in the north of San Bernardino, south on Kendall Drive to E Street then left through Hospitality Lane and onto Anderson Street into Loma Linda. It will briefly run south on Anderson Street then head east on Barton Avenue, near the Loma Linda VA, finally turning north on Benton Street, according to the plans. The new buses will pick up more riders and cut down on the need for as many of the regular fixed schedule buses, thus reducing the impact on traffic, Rutherford said.

“It should be a pleasant experience because, number one its frequent, every 10 minutes,” Rutherford said of the sbX. “Number two is it’s rapid, and the key components of this system that make it rapid is the exclusive lanes in the area of Hospitality and E Street and traffic signal priority which allows the coach operator to extend the length of a green light by a few seconds and it has four stops in the fixed route service.

The sbX also prepares Omnitrans to serve an area -- composed of nearly the entire 909 area code -- that is expected to grow to a million people in the next 20 years.

Omnitrans officials say the buses will be convenient for workers and students from Loma Linda to access Hospitality Lane’s eateries.

Some of the business owners along Hospitality are unhappy with the plan to have a dedicated lane cut down the center of the road. It eliminates some left turn lanes. They argue it could run off customers who will be forced to travel past their business to make U-Turns.

“This is a significant construction project, which will involve major construction and it will result in reconfiguration of the of the corridor into a transit corridor,” Rutherford said. “And as a result there will be changes that are designed to meet the cities growing needs. Some of those changes, although they may not seem favorable to some, are in the cities best interest.”