Santa Fe Station contract awarded
A $2,287,250 contract to continue the work of transforming Oklahoma City’s historic Santa Fe Station into an intermodal transit hub was approved Monday by the Oklahoma Transportation Commission.
The contract is part of a $28.4 million project to renovate the downtown 1930s-era train station and convert it to a transit hub to serve passenger trains, a new streetcar system, city buses, a bicycle sharing service, taxis and
ride-sharing services.
The transit hub is located at 100 South E.K. Gaylord, between Sheridan and Reno avenues.
City officials hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony last December to celebrate the restoration of Santa Fe Station, but several additional projects will be done in phases.
The contract awarded Monday calls for the installation of glass to surround historic portions on the platform, raising the platform to make it more wheelchair accessible, painting the canopy and adding new lighting, said Shannon Cox, public information officer for the Oklahoma City Public Works Department.
Jim Cooley Construction Inc. of Oklahoma City was awarded the contract, which will be built with $1,829,800 in federal funds and $457,450 in city funds.
No state money is involved in this particular contract, but the state Transportation Commission awarded the project because of its role in managing the expenditure of federal transportation funds. The state has contributed $1.5 million to other phases of the project. Work is expected to take 380 days.
Future Santa Fe Station projects are expected to include constructing a tunnel beneath the railroad tracks to link downtown and Bricktown and construction of a Bricktown plaza, Cox said.
"It's a beautiful facility," said Craig Moody, rail programs division manager for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.
The depot originally was built as a freight station in 1904. The railroad tracks were elevated in 1930 and the current station was built in 1934 at a cost of $500,000.