CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The city revealed plans for a new CTS Transit Center location at Union and Madison Street during an open house Thursday night.

The city is looking to move the Transit Center from its current location on Legion Street to the new spot at 420 Madison St. During the open house, City Director of Transit Michael Ringgenberg presented renderings of the new site along with:

  • Details about the process and timeline for the project, which began in 2017.
  • What was done in 2017 with the 30-plus properties previously evaluated.
  • The layout of the Union and Madison Street property, with the three buildings removed and what it would look like.
  • Square footage of the new CTS Transit Center.
  • Renderings of what the new CTS Transit Center would look like.

The new Transit Center would be more than 8,500 square feet, with a multimodal transfer facility, along with a 50-space parking garage, and two bus canopies extending across the rear of the property.

The multimodal transfer facility will not only have a place for passengers and bus drivers, but also for CTS administration offices, currently at 430 Boillin Lane, which is 2 miles away at a location off Crossland Avenue.

| DOWNLOAD THE APP: Sign up for our free Clarksville Now app

Ringgenberg did point out that the challenge with the selected property is the 22-foot elevation difference on Union and Madison Street. He said that the property has a 6% slope, and for it to be ADA-accessible, they’ll have to bring in a lot of dirt.

Why CTS Transit Center move was needed

Ringgenberg told Clarksville Now that in 2017, the city created a list of properties the new Transit Center could be moved to, as everything in the area of CTS’s current Transit Center, located at 200 Legion St., began to outgrow it.

“The bigger challenge downtown is everything has grown up around it; the park across the street (Downtown Commons) will sometimes have 2,000 to 3,000 people in it,” Ringgenberg said. “Which means now we have to try to contend and dodge 3,000 people. We get asked to move away from the Transit Center a couple of times per month just so they could have events over there.

“So, years ago, they were looking at moving the Transit Center to a location that was farther away from downtown, so we had more room to grow. Transit Centers are built for a 40-year lifespan. This one is getting close to that, so it’s time to either to spend a lot of money to fix it or move it a little farther so we can get a little more footprint.”

The Transit Center sits atop the Franklin Street parking garage, and both have had to have extensive repairs in recent years.

Ringgenberg said with the size of Clarksville and the way it’s growing, CTS is going to have to have more routes. “If we have more routes, we can’t fit it into the spot we have downtown right now. So, we’re going to have to go a little bigger. This one, we’re trying to design for the next 40 years, so we’re trying to make sure we have enough room for bigger buses and all that kind of stuff.”

What’s next for CTS Transit Center move

The new Transit Center is expected to be see final design and construction from 2026-27.

Windel has served as the main contractor leading up to Thursday’s open house, and Kimberly-Horn Solutions was brought in as contractors for the project, said Ringgenberg.

At the open house, attendees were given the opportunity to share their thoughts on the process, as well as the planned new location. For more information about the open house, contact CTS Business Analyst Patricia Nesbitt by email at patricia.nesbitt@cityofclarksville.com or call 931-553-2430.

| DOWNLOAD THE APP: Sign up for our free Clarksville Now app