(Joe Kline/Bulletin photo)

Owner: Bend-La Pine Schools

Architect: Steele Associates

General contractor: Griffin Construction LLC

Details: Paving began Friday at the Bend-La Pine Schools transportation hub, which is getting a $2.2 million makeover, funded by a 2013 bond issue.

Scheduling paving around ongoing use of the site by the district has been the most challenging aspect of the project, said Sam McLaughlin, project manager at Griffin Construction of Prineville. But paving will be finished by the time buses start running full-time Sept. 5.

Bend-La Pine employees are working out of the bus shop building and a rented trailer, McLaughlin said.

In addition to 70,000 square feet of new asphalt and 130 parking spaces, the transportation center will have a new 4,600-square-foot administration and dispatch building. The building replaces Quonset huts, which were demolished.

The dispatch building, designed by Steele Associates of Bend, includes offices, a conference room and a large training room, McLaughlin said.

Griffin Construction will build a 2,300-square-foot addition to the metal shop building, which will get a new roof, McLaughlin said. The shop and a tire shed will be repainted to match the new wall panels. “So really the whole campus is going to look pretty good,” he said.

The whole transportation facility is scheduled for substantial completion by Oct. 20 and final completion by Nov. 20. Griffin estimates that the project, which started in spring, will have employed 75 or more people by the time it’s complete.

Subcontractors include civil engineers Hickman, Williams & Associates Inc., structural engineers Froelich Engineers, landscape architects J Battleson Design, electrical and mechanical engineers System Design Consultants of Portland and Tri-County Paving of Redmond.

The site is at the northwest corner of SE Wilson Avenue and SE Second St.

— Kathleen McLaughlin, The Bulletin