This aerial photo from a nearby KATS video camera shows the progress, so far, on the $6 million facility.

This aerial photo from a nearby KATS video camera shows the progress, so far, on the $6 million facility.

A new $6 million garage for the Kingsport Area Transit Services is currently under construction and is on track to be completed within time, a city official said.

“This time next year is when we expect to have it fully finished,” said Chris Campbell, executive director for Kingsport Area Transit Services.

Construction on the garage began several weeks ago for the garage, which will be a a housing area for daily maintenance tasks, such as washing and cleaning the buses, along with oil checks and other in-house maintenance tasks.

The construction of the garage and maintenance building has been on the radar for the city for almost eight years.

Path Construction, based out of Illinois, is handling the construction of the project. The city is putting in a little more than $1 million in the project, while the majority of the funding is coming from state and federal dollars.

Campbell said, so far, the construction company has graded, installed footings and foundation.

“They are currently about to finish up with some utility work,” he said.

In two weeks, the slab floor of the building will be poured, he said. Then the company will start constructing a mezzanine, which will have an office and storage. In the meantime, a pre-engineered building that will serve as the bays is currently under construction.

He said the construction company has seen some supply chain problems, but it has overcome those problems by ordering ahead and constructing what can be constructed at this time.

“We’ve really been happy with what they are doing so far,” Campbell said.

Once the building is completed, it should slightly mimic the aesthetics of the Farmer’s Market. Campbell said KATS has also been working closely with the Main Street Revitalization project.

The city is expected to start reworking Main Street, including aesthetics. One aspect of the design will also be redesigning the intersection of Main and Sullivan streets, in front of the KATS building.

The redesign is supposed to help with people’s line of sight as they are turning.

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