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Amtran seeks bids

Transportation Center platform needs roof panels, repairs

Amtran has advertised for bids for replacement of the roof panels over the platform at the authority’s 31-year-old downtown Transportation Center, along with other repairs.

Bids are due in early February for the project, estimated to cost about $245,000 by consulting engineer Brent Cartwright of EADS.

Amtran will pay for the work mainly with its capital allocation from PennDOT for the current fiscal year, plus leftover federal capital funding that was not designated for anything in particular and a local share, according to General Manager Eric Wolf.

Amtran has repainted the roof panels previously, but the paint didn’t hold up.

Rust has begun to eat away at the metal in many areas, and neither contractors nor manufacturers consulted by Cartwright would guarantee a recoating, Cartwright said.

The replacement panels are expensive because they are structural, due to the six-foot span they need to bridge, according to Cartwright.

Only one manufacturer makes panels that can do it, according to Cartwright.

The engineer considered adding supports to reduce the span, so workers could install standardized panels, but that might actually have been more costly, Cartwright told the board.

Workers will also refurbish and reseal the concrete-filled steel columns that support the roof.

In places, the concrete has lifted at the top of the columns and steel has corroded at the bottom.

Workers will open up one column to ensure that the steel in the interior is sound, as an indicator of the condition of the interior of all the columns.

At the suggestion of board member Denny Stewart, Cartwright will re-examine his plans to determine whether it makes sense to install LED lights.

Cartwright initially estimated that it would cost $26,000 to install LED bulbs in the current fixtures and $45,000 to replace those fixtures with special ones designed for LEDs.

That was surprisingly expensive, board members said in rejecting the idea.

But installing LEDs would seem to make sense anyway, given their lower operating costs and the trend toward using them in public places nearby, including the Transportation Center itself, Stewart said.

The Altoona Parking Authority installed LEDs in the center and its other parking facilities last year at virtually no cost — due to the offsetting of construction expenses by a reduction in its electric bills.

If Amtran were to add the installation of LEDs to the project, however, it would need to dip into its operating reserves, Wolf said.

To do that, the authority would need permission from PennDOT — the source of the funds — to use them for a capital project, according to Finance Director Mandy Murphy.

Alternatively, Amtran could hold off on the LED installation, then do it as part of a grant-funded project to renew lighting at the Amtran administration building on Fifth Avenue, suggested board member Tony Roscia.

That would be preferable only if it doesn’t involve tearing out work to be done this spring as part of the platform project, said board Chairman Scott Cessna.

As part of the platform project, workers will also install three additional benches, regrout the pavers where needed, pressure wash the floor, repaint the bus bay signs and repair concrete in the bus lane.

To minimize disruption for riders, workers will complete work on half the platform, then do the rest.

Wolf planned to warn the Altoona Parking Authority and the Greater Altoona Economic Development Corp. that the work could render some parking spaces on the downtown side of the platform unusable for a time.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.

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