Photo by Vince Taroc

San Diego County, Calif., opened its $22 million fleet facility building in May. The structure consists of a 45,000-square-foot ground floor fleet service operation and four levels of parking for fleet vehicles and county employees.

Fleet moved into the new facility to make room for a crime lab. The relatively new shop equipment from its old building will be moved to satellite shops, which have aging equipment.

The building is located within a county administration campus. Sharyl Blackington, fleet manager for the county, said the completed building reflects the campus plan of emphasis on pedestrian circulation and walkability, quality civic architecture, and committment to community planning and public art.

Fleet services approximately 1,900 of its 4,100 vehicles and equipment at this facility — its biggest of eight — in addition to upfitting and storage for remarketing. In addition to administrative offices, it has 32 service bays.

“Not every bay has a lift in it. We have flat work, lift work, and flex bay work,” said John Manring, fleet coordinator. “If the heavy side workload is higher, we can move heavy into those bays and then if we get a large order of vehicles where we’re pushing a lot of sedans through here, we can put those people into the flex bays with the sedans.”

The facility also includes a centralized fluid management system and an exhaust system that is capable of doing five complete air changes in one hour. The building has a “circulation logic” that directs large vehicles to its primary entry, Blackington said. Large roll-up doors are aligned with the parking areas for buses and also give staff control during inclement weather.

The third floor has reserved parking for fleet, and drivers without appointments can park vehicles needing service there. It also houses the motor pool and electric vehicles.

“What we're hoping to do is consolidate this pool and make it become part of the consolidated motor pool for other departments' use at this campus,” said Brad Northup, fleet acquisitions coordinator.

The top floor is reserved for vehicles coming into service or ready for remarketing.