Aug. 25--A state agency is leading the push to build a $4 million compressed natural gas fueling facility in Rochester for the city's public buses.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is requesting $3.2 million be set aside for the project as part of a statewide construction borrowing bill. MnDOT Office of Transit Director Mike Schadauer said the project would be a boast to the environment and reduce long-term costs.

"It's a clean-burning fuel that doesn't have much emissions, and it's cheaper than diesel fuel, so over the life span of the fueling facility, you would more than make up for the cost of putting it in because of the cheaper fuel costs," Schadauer said.

MnDOT ranked the project six on its priority list. If it wins lawmakers' approval, the city of Rochester would cover the remaining $800,000 cost.

The potential fuel cost savings to the city of using compressed natural gas (CNG) instead of diesel for city buses could be substantial, according to Tony Knauer, the city's transit and parking manager. The city owns 45 buses and uses about 300,000 gallons of diesel per year. If all of those buses were using CNG instead of diesel, it would save the city $600,000 per year on fuel, according to an analysis from a year ago. Knauer said diesel gas has gotten cheaper since then, but there's still a substantial cost savings from making the switch.

City officials have long been mulling over the idea of gradually shifting from using diesel to compressed natural gas for Rochester's buses. But efforts to move ahead on a new fueling station proved more challenging than originally expected, said Rochester City Council President Randy Staver.

Initially, the city had hoped to retrofit its new Public Works Transit Operations Center to handle CNG buses. In 2013, the city spent $34,000 to hire an architectural firm to do a feasibility study for the project. It found that building the project would require costly upgrades to the building's heating, cooling and ventilation systems. So the city explored a new option -- trying to partner with private businesses. Officials looked into whether city buses could use the Kwik Trip in northwest Rochester that has CNG. The problem is Kwik Trip is a low-pressure fueling station, meaning it would take a very long time to fill up a bus. Turns out the city needs a high-pressure fueling station. The city then tried to see if any companies were interested in establishing a partnership, but no businesses expressed interest.

The benefit of the MnDOT proposal is the state would be covering 80 percent of the project cost. As such, Staver backs the fueling station plan, which fits with the city's goals of increasing transit ridership while providing other benefits.

"We're certainly sensitive to the environmental concerns. We want to reduce gas emissions, we want to use the best technology we can and we know that compressed natural gas is less expensive than diesel fuel, and it burns more cleanly," Staver said.

He said the city also plans to ask local lawmakers to introduce a bill to fund the project. Getting funding for the project will likely be tough since the state has already had $3.2 billion in funding requests. Historically, lawmakers have approved bonding bills a third of that size.

Rochester Sen. Dave Senjem is the ranking Republican on the Senate Capital Investment Committee. He said he is frustrated that the three-year-old public works transit center wasn't built to accommodate a CNG fueling station. Another issue is if state lawmakers agree to fund a fueling station in Rochester, it may open the door to other communities wanting the state to step in and fund their stations. Still, Senjem said he believes the project has merit and that it makes sense to switch to CNG.

He added, "Competition is pretty fierce for dollars, so they will have to make a good case."

Article via Mass Transit Magazine