The City of Knoxville and the Public Building Authority unveiled concept drawings and floor plans Thursday of the new Knoxville Station Transit Center featuring a bus platform that will stretch over the James White Parkway.

Major construction on the environmentally friendly, 108,000-square-foot station is set to begin with foundation work in the parkway during March of 2008.Jeff Galyon, the PBA's project manager, said the estimated completion date is late fall of 2009 and the Knoxville Transit Authority would like to begin operations on January 1, 2010.

KTA currently carries 3.6 million riders annually and expects that number to climb with the opening of the new transit center that includes a covered loading area, a lobby where riders can wait in warmth or air conditioning, depending on the season, and watch a system that tells riders exactly where the bus they are waiting on is at that moment.

Currently the main transfer station is outside in front of the City County Building.The construction plans were discussed during a public meeting in the lobby of the Knoxville Civic Auditorium attended by representatives from the city, KTA, the PBA and the architectural and engineering firms involved in the project.

"This is something that we have been waiting on for a long time and it's taken a lot of work to get to this point," said Mayor Bill Haslam. "So it's exciting to see how the station will look and how it will work."

The design work isn't completed but Galyon indicated that it was far enough along to give the public an idea of what the station will look like - inside and out - and how it will operate."We wanted to show people where we are," he said. "We haven't had a public meeting since July and we've made a lot of progress."

The meeting included a walk through of the new transit center and a view of what it will look like from First Presbyterian Church, across the First Creek Valley from the center.

"The patience of KAT passengers and KAT employees will be rewarded when the transit center is open for business," said KAT General Manager Cindy McGinnis, "

The recent progress made by city officials and the transit center design team is bringing a great transit center closer to reality."The main entrance will be on Church Avenue and will be under the bus platform. Riders will take the steps up to the platform, which can handle 20 buses at any one time.

There will be entrances and exits onto both Church Avenue and Hall of Fame Drive.The building will be LEED certified meaning that it will use less energy than conventional buildings and will be built with sustainable building practices. It will also house some of the Knoxville Transportation Authority's offices including customer service.

"This facility will help connect downtown to the east across James White Parkway," said Bill Lyons, Sr. Director of Policy and Communications. "It creates useable space rather than taking land from other productive use." The new Knoxville Station Transit Center has a $29 million price tag, which includes land acquisition, planning and design costs, and is being paid for with a mix of city, state and federal dollars. The city's share is 10% or 2.9 million dollars.

The architectural firms of McCarty Holsaple McCarty Architects and Interior Designers and Bullock, Smith & Partners Inc. are working together on the project.Wilbur Smith and Associates is the engineering firm and Johnson & Galyon is the contractor.