Ben Franklin Transit recently completed construction on a new operations building to accommodate its growing staff.

The 17,000-square-foot building at 1026 Columbia Park Trail in Richland features open and private office and work areas, dispatch area, training and conference rooms, commons with kitchen and locker facilities. 

It is two stories tall with module-type walls on the second floor sized and configured to accommodate a conference room, two offices or a group of workstations, allowing BFT to adapt to growth as needed. 

The building features a decorative metal fence in outdoor grass and concrete patio between the administration and the new building. Landscaping consists of basalt rocks, small deciduous trees, local plants, flowers and concrete pavers.

The building replaces the old operations building and shares the same footprint.

The first floor serves the operations team (driver comfort, Fixed Route and Dial-A-Ride dispatchers, schedulers, reservationists, road supervisors and other operations staff). 

The second floor consists of the transit’s planning, marketing, training, procurement and safety departments.

The project cost about $11.4 million, including sales tax. BFT already owned the land, and it received about $1.2 million in federal funding for the project.

It was substantially completed April 16.

Fowler General Construction Inc. of Richland is the general contractor.

Wenaha Group of Kennewick is the construction management firm.

TCF Architecture of Tacoma is the architect.

Ben Franklin Transit is a public transportation agency for Franklin and Benton counties in southeastern Washington, serving the cities of Kennewick, Richland, Pasco, West Richland, Prosser, Benton City and Finley. BFT services include fixed-route buses, Dial-A-Ride paratransit, Vanpool, CONNECT and Demand Response in Prosser and Benton City.