Impact of Friday Evening Storm on HART Facility

Following a severe weather event that recently went through our area Friday evening, HART faced significant challenges in ensuring the continuity of transit services for several hours. The HART Transit Operations Facility lost all power, which included vital infrastructure such as the generator, radio tower communications and data-center information systems.

Emergency work on HART's main generator

The effects of these high-impact, pop-up weather events underscore the urgent need for support to harden our transit operations infrastructure. To address these challenges effectively, HART is actively pursuing a US Department of Transportation (US DOT) RAISE Grant, requesting $23.4 million. This grant is crucial for HART to begin addressing our facility needs and improve the resilience of infrastructure for current and future weather and climate risks.

"We are at a critical juncture in maintaining the operational readiness of our transit services when strong-impact storms affect our Operations & Heavy Maintenance Facility," said Kemly Jimenez Green, HART Director of Communications. The support from a US DOT RAISE Grant will play a pivotal role addressing infrastructure and bolstering our resilience against future disruptions."

HART’s RAISE grant application (The Project) seeks funding specifically for the first phase of the site remediation and modernization, which will be followed by the demolition and rebuilding of the 45-year-old heavy maintenance facility. The Project will improve the safety of the traveling public through improved routine maintenance of the buses as well as safer facilities for HART staff. The Project will address environmental sustainability through the provision of nature-based solutions for stormwater remediation and improving resilience of infrastructure for current and future weather and climate risks.

HART has remained committed to providing reliable transit services to our community despite these challenges. Thanks to highly skilled Controllers, Transit Supervisors, Bus Operators, and Paratransit Drivers – HART continued to deliver service out on the roads –avoiding any systemic customer disruptions Friday evening.

HART values the ongoing support and collaboration of our community partners and stakeholders, especially Tampa Electric for restoring power to HART as quickly as possible. This allowed HART to service and maintain vehicles overnight and resume transit operations this morning for all our customers.

Flooding in the inventory room