LOCATION
The city of St. Petersburg is located on the Pinellas peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, in Pinellas County, Florida. Known as the “Sunshine City,” St. Petersburg is home to more than 258,000 residents, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the largest city in the state that is not a county seat. Together with Tampa and Clearwater, it anchors the Tampa Bay area, the second-largest metropolitan area in Florida.
Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) provides fixed-route bus service throughout Pinellas County, connecting riders across St. Petersburg and the surrounding communities.
PROJECT SCOPE
Tolar Manufacturing Company, North America’s leader in the design and fabrication of award-winning transit shelters, will soon begin producing 19 bus shelters from the $2,000,000, 135-shelter, three-year contract awarded by PSTA in March. The custom Signature Series shelters provide a distinct and unique design reflecting the character of the St. Petersburg community while creating a comfortable, safe, and familiar place for passengers to connect to their bus. All 19 shelters are scheduled for delivery to St. Petersburg in December 2023.
“PSTA is beyond excited to partner with Tolar Manufacturing to bring these new state-of-the-art bus shelters to the community of Pinellas County,” said Brad Miller, PSTA’s Chief Executive Officer. “We want to make sure our riders feel secure and have an enjoyable experience when waiting for our buses.”
With this first order, Tolar Manufacturing will provide ten 4-ft x 8-ft bus shelters and four 4-ft x 12-ft shelters, each incorporating “Laguna Blue” acrylic roof panels, perforated aluminum wall panels with an Arctic Blue glass accent panel, and PSTA agency branding. Additionally, the company is designing and building five unique Signature Sunset EcoShade monopole shelters with integrated seating. Tolar Manufacturing was selected to fulfill this contract in part due to its focus on sustainability. Tolar takes great efforts to implement manufacturing processes and procedures that reduce the use of material resources, processing times, and consumable products. Additionally, Tolar demonstrated its experience in offering robust solar powered shelter lighting systems that provide customers with environmentally friendly and secure lighting, while reducing the carbon footprint using clean solar energy production.
“Our new EcoShade pole shelter takes inspiration from our EcoSeat that we launched several years ago,” said Scott Williams, Business Development Manager for Tolar Manufacturing Company. “As a complete stand-alone bus stop solution, these pole style shelters are perfect for small spaces with limited right of way. It’s an economical way to provide passenger comfort and security in a single package.” Tolar Manufacturing’s EcoShade creatively and effectively incorporates a 6-ft wide by 6-ft deep weather protecting roof along with comfortable seating for two and 80W solar security lighting capable of providing power for integrated technologies such as E-Paper Real Time Information Signage (RTIS) and USB charging.
