SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — On May 10, Utah Transit Authority (UTA) opened its state-of-the-art maintenance and fueling facility — the Central Depot District Garage — which will fully accommodate today’s alternative fuel and clean air transit vehicles.

This project, which resulted from three years of meticulous construction work, is expected to create jobs, increase economic growth, and improve Utah’s air quality.

The Depot District will replace the 46-year-old Salt Lake Central Bus Garage, which could maintain just 100 buses at a time due to a lack of available space. Now, the new Depot District will provide UTA with additional storage for more vehicles and state-of-the-art maintenance resources.

Upon opening, this massive new facility — covering 118,088 square feet and located at 200 S. 669 W. in Salt Lake City — will be capable of storing and maintaining up to 150 buses with the potential to expand its service to 250 buses as needed.

Overall, the project includes a new bus maintenance shop, bus wash, diesel fueling center, administrative offices, and charging facilities for UTA’s fleet of up to 24 electric buses and 47 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses.

In addition to the expanded facilities, the new Depot District will reportedly free up land at the site of the old Salt Lake Central Garage to be used as a potential mixed-use Transit Oriented Development (TOD) to help address the city’s ongoing housing shortage. This redevelopment project extends over 9 acres and is anticipated to bring hundreds of new apartments, shops, offices, green space, public market, and more to an economically challenged neighborhood.

Altogether, the Depot District has been identified as a critical need to significantly expand public transportation services in Salt Lake and Davis counties while also providing UTA with the ability to further grow its fleet of clean-fuel buses.