More Pace Bus Routes To Come to Plainfield With New Garage

PLAINFIELD, IL — The Plainfield Village Board approved the site plan for a bus maintenance and storage garage for Pace at the Plainfield Business Park at Depot Drive and Van Dyke Road., during its Aug. 3 meeting. This will allow the company to add more service routes to the area.

"It's a great opportunity to have further advancement of our partnership with Pace and start getting people efficiently to the city and the surrounding areas as well" said village trustee Harry Benton.

He also said that once colleges reopen, students can get dropped off directly in front of the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Jake Melrose, economic development manager for the Village of Plainfield, said Pace has been increasing storage limitations through the years as their services has grown in the southwest suburbs, particularly in Plainfield with the new Park-n-Ride facility that opened last year.

He said the proposed new facility will allow Pace to grow their expanding services and eventually add more routes and different commuting options to the Plainfield Park-n-Ride. It will also initially bring in over 100 jobs to the community and then over 200 once full operational capacity has been reached.

The new Pace facility is a $52 million project that is funded through the new capital budget of the Regional Transportation Authority. This will include a fully-constructed Depot Drive, utility extensions and common area stormwater that facilitates the future development of the park. The village will act as a construction manager.

Melrose said the storage facility would be located just south of the Park-n-Ride lot on east side of the extended Depot Drive. Once constructed, the building will be 232,853 square feet on about 12 acres of the development. The facility will provide 136,680 square feet of bus storage space with the remainder of the square footage split between office service, maintenance, mechanical and repair areas. A 13,140 square feet of office space will also be constructed for future use.

Currently, Plainfield residents who want to commute to the downtown area can park their cars at the lot on Van Dyke Road and hop on a bus that drives in the shoulder lane of I-55.

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