Construction on the 11th Avenue segment of Lane Transit District’s EmX line, which began in April, wrapped up at the end of last week.
“They should see East 11th pretty well cleared up, which has been our goal all along,” LTD spokesperson Sue Viggiano said shortly before the completion of the East 11th segment.
Scheduled to open in fall 2006, EmX is a new Bus Rapid Transit line that will initially connect downtown Eugene with downtown Springfield before growing to include other routes.
LTD tried from the beginning of construction to have the East 11th segment finished before school began in the fall in order to avoid blocking traffic for University students and faculty.
Currently, EWEB and LTD are working on a joint project to bring utilities underground near the Dad’s Gate station between Onyx Street and Riverfront Parkway. This will affect traffic flowing west on Franklin Boulevard for several weeks.
After this, LTD plans no construction in the University area for the rest of the calendar year, Viggiano said. However, construction will begin again in the spring on median lines and the stations themselves.
This will be the final phase of construction, and will last into next summer. Construction of the Dad’s Gate station will impede access to campus, but Viggiano says it will be worth it.
“It’s really going to be one of our signature stations. It looks really good,” Viggiano said. “I’m excited.”
Eighty percent of the project’s $22 million price tag comes from federal funding while 20 percent comes from local matching.
“That’s a funding formula that the federal government has been using for while,” Viggiano said.
Construction began late last summer in downtown Springfield.
“We’re ordering five buses that are actually still being designed,” Viggiano said.
The 60-foot buses will be low to the ground and have hybrid engines, which use electricity as well as gasoline to improve fuel efficiency.
“Bus Rapid Transit uses a lot of the technologies of light rail and packages it together with rubber tire buses to get practically the same result,” Viggiano said.
The buses will run every 12 minutes in a dedicated lane with easier loading and wider-spaced stops, similar to light rail.
Also, like light rail, the buses will have pre-paid fares, once fares start being collected. As an introductory promotion, EmX will not charge passengers when it begins operations.
“The four-mile route will be free for probably up to two years,” Viggiano said. “It’s going to be very cool.”
Because of its similarities to light rail, the operators will need more training before service starts.
“It’s a brand new way of driving buses,” Viggiano said.
Using a BRT system such as EmX is a better transportation solution than light rail for an area the size of Eugene-Springfield, according to Viggiano.
Portland, which has a light rail system, is one of the smallest areas in the country that uses light rail. It takes a large tax-base to support light rail, Viggiano said.
“We don’t have that kind of an infrastructure,” she said.
Various University students and staff have assisted in the process of ironing out the details of how the new system will serve customers.
“We couldn’t have done it without U of O,” Viggiano said.

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