Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (RGRTA) is the provider of public transportation service in the Rochester, NY region. Regional Transit Service (RTS) is RGRTA’s largest subsidiary corporation, providing fixed-route transit service in the City of Rochester and adjacent suburbs in Monroe County. The new 24,000 square foot LEED v4 Sliver certifiable Advanced Environmental Service Building will be used to clean, fuel, check fluids, empty fareboxes, and wash buses and other types of vehicles at the end of their service day and prior to overnight maintenance or storage. The building will also include support spaces such as storage areas, mechanical rooms, supervisor offices, restrooms, etc. and employee amenities such as a break room.

As the owner’s representative and commissioning authority, Popli Design Group (PDG) has been providing comprehensive commissioning services to ensure the design and construction is in accordance with owner’s project requirements. It includes design review and value engineering, technical support, design and construction assessment, development of guaranteed maximum price, enhanced commissioning, construction oversight, financial tracking, and monitoring. 

During the design phase of the project, PDG developed the owner’s project requirements (OPR), established the commissioning plan, performed periodic and final design document reviews and code compliance reviews (including energy code and related LEED credits), and independently estimated system costs for design decisions. For example, in collaboration with the design-build contractor, our team has attended all design and construction meetings since the initial kick-off, proposed and qualitatively evaluated several mechanical systems (i.e. radiant heating system, variable air volume, variable refrigerant flow, and energy recovery systems), reviewed design drawings and specifications to ensure more than 20% improvement in energy efficiency per LEED EA credits, performed detailed construction cost estimate based on proposed design options, and provided miscellaneous technical support.

During the construction phase of the project, PDG has been conducting enhanced commissioning per LEED EA requirements and construction oversight per the OPR. For example, we held a kickoff meeting with the design-build team and the owner in the beginning of construction, reviewed various contractor’s submittals, assisted the owner in purchasing decisions, advised in energy and fuel code compliance and change orders to accommodate COVID-19 mitigation, developed a training plan, conducted construction cost estimate and financial tracking, monitored the MWBE utilization. PDG is currently performing periodic observation inspections, and pre-functional and functional performance testing for all the building and process systems, which also includes building envelope commissioning. The completion of the project is expected in May 2021.