Construction Authority CEO Habib Balian
The quarter-billion dollar 24-acre Gold Line Operations Campus in Monrovia was unveiled this morning that showcased the first-ever Gold Level LEED-certified project of this type, featuring state-of-the-art environmental-friendly elements. Among them, a whopping 714 frame-less solar panels configured on canopies that could power dozens of homes.
The $265 million campus (only 20 acres are being used in order to allow neighbor 3M Unitek to keep their facility in operation) between the 210 freeway and Duarte Road with an entrance on the west side off California Avenue, will house and service up to 84 light rail vehicles and employ 200 people. It will be turned over to Metro in early June, 2015 and Metro is expected to open the next 11.5-mile extension from Pasadena through Arcadia and out to Azusa in early 2016. The station in Arcadia is scheduled to be dedicated in September.
The main shop on the campus is a 132,000 square-foot building, for which only a third of the energy of the solar panels will be required.
Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority CEO Habib F. Balian said the Operations Campus is one of the only of its kind to be designed and built to meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification requirements, including a 35% reduction in water usage and 32.5% cut in energy consumption.
Balian and Parsons Chief Architect for Rail & Transit Systems Roland Genick, as well as experts from Hot Purple Energy and CONTECH Engineered Solutions described and demonstrated some of the elements that led to that certification:
- A comprehensive storm water collection and filtration system designed to capture and treat the first 112,000 gallons of rainfall
- An on-site 178.5-kilowatt solar panel array that will generate an average of 22,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each month
- Drought tolerant landscaping and smart technology irrigation that will reduce water consumption in the landscaped areas by 50%
- A car wash facility that will utilize only recycled, reclaimed water for its 60,000 gallons of daily usage
- Locally sourced and recycled materials
- Energy and water saving features throughout the 132,000 square foot Main Shop Building
