After the lack of bus shelters at Skyline College, contracting company Swinerton has planned to begin assembling and constructing them starting next week.

Since large-scale construction projects had consumed the campus, bus shelter plans were delayed. Students and faculty alike had to wait for the bus during rainy days out in the open. It was not uncommon to find that students were wondering where the shelters were.

Certain Skyline personnel wondered as well. Richard Inokuchi, Facilities Operations and Maintenance Manager at Skyline College, inquired about bus shelters. He informed us that he was told that new bus shelters would be constructed by October 2010, and was surprised when nothing was constructed.

“I saw students sitting on the curb and on the grass,” said Inokuchi. “I felt for the students, so I even put out those benches you see out there. That was me.”

The delay, as explained by Jack Herbert, the construction project manager in the facilities planning and operations division, was logistical and not through intent by Skyline’s contractor.

“With the bus shelters, it was an approvals issue with DSA[Division of the State Architect],” said Herbert.

“[DSA]was requiring structural details that we don’t typically provide.”

DSA requires structural calculations, and everything you see built, typically things like bus shelters, are manufactured by a factory that are pre-engineered, and pre-tested, and pre-approved, so typically you buy those things with the intention that they are structural sound, and you don’t go ahead and include the calculations in your drawings and specifications.”

Herbert then explained how that posed a problem to Swinerton.

“In this case, DSA came back and said “we’re not going to approve these[bus shelters]on your campus until we see full calculations.” So, that was really the logistics of going back to the manufacturer and having them produce engineer documents, and stamped and signed engineer drawings that then had to be reviewed. That delayed the order process.”

The process, according to Herbert, is now back on track.

“In fact, the bus shelters were shipped yesterday, so we’re expecting them to be on site next week,” said Herbert. “Whatever time it takes to get them assembled, so, by the end of next week, we’re hoping to have them in place.”

Samtrans, San Mateo County’s transit system, would not build bus shelters in low commercial areas. According to Herbert, Skyline College would have to produce them on their own. Due to bus shelters having advertisers posting in cooperation with Samtrans, this just another obstacle that Skyline avoided.

The bus shelters are arriving by truck, and will be expected to be up by the end of next week. Herbert stated that Skyline would have three bus shelters.