They call it street furniture but it's just transit shelters, garbage bins, benches, bicycle rngs, info pillars and public toilets. The city has agreed to a $1-billion contract with Montreal-based Astral Media Inc., to install 26,000 pieces over the next 20 year. The city is guaranteed a minimum of $428-million in revenue over the life of the contract, (on average $21.4-million a year compared with a previous deal for bus shelters with another company that generated $5-million a year for city coffers).
Work begins July 1 to install the first of 5,000 bus shelters (in different sizes according to their location). One-third will be solar-powered and carry no advertising, while the other two-thirds will have poster-size, illuminated ads.
Later this year, the new shelters may include a feature that uses GPS technology to tell transit riders how many minutes they have to wait for the next bus.
The most anticipated piece of street furniture - new public toilets - will have a $300,000 price-tag, the self-cleaning, wheelchair-accessible facility will be located only in major tourist areas. The first will be in place next year, with at most two added a year, for a total of 20 by 2027.
Starting in October, the first of 12,500 garbage/recycling bins will be installed, replacing 6,500 existing bins and adding 6,000 in new locations over the life of the contract. Unlike the current roster of litter bins, the new ones will carry no advertising.
The first of 2,000 benches will be in place by September, none of which will carry advertising. They will gradually replace 1,000 existing benches (with ads) and add 1,000 more at new locations.
Illuminated way-finding kiosks, with 120 to be in place by the end of 2009, will carry poster-size advertising on each wing of the structure. The tourist information includes maps and a touch-screen presented without ads. A security camera will be placed in each kiosk to deter vandalism.
In a bid to cut down on posters slapped up on hydro poles and other locations, neighbourhood ads for garage sales and other events will be permitted on 500 bulletin boards attached to some of the bus shelters and 2,000 other, self-standing kiosks.
Another 1,000 bicycle posts will be added, in groups of 50 a year over 20 years, to the current roster of 17,000 scattered across the city.
At yet-to-be-determined major intersections, 500 multi-publication boxes will be installed over 20 years to replace the familiar lineup of individual newspaper boxes chained to hydro poles and street lights. The new boxes will house either six or 12 publications. At 2,000 other locations, newspaper boxes will be attached to a new enclosure bar to give a more orderly look.
0 comments:
Post a Comment