Rock Region Metro, the transit agency for Pulaski County, has been awarded a $288,750 federal grant to purchase and test 35 portable ultraviolet-C light disinfectant systems designed to sanitize public vehicles.
Under the terms of the grant, Rock Region will be required to report to other transit agencies on the effectiveness of the systems.
The grant will pay for the disinfectant systems and provide money to pay for a third-party evaluator to help the agency in testing protocols and reporting results, Rock Region said in a news release.
The Federal Transit Administration grant was one of 37 grants totaling $15.8 million awarded for projects that provide potential solutions to aid transit agencies in their fight against the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to dramatic declines in ridership.
For Rock Region, the disinfectant systems will be added to a cleaning regimen that already has been bolstered in the wake of the pandemic.
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"Even before the pandemic, it has been standard practice at Metro to clean our facilities and vehicles regularly," said Charles Frazier, the agency's chief executive officer. "At the beginning of the pandemic, we took several steps to enhance the sanitization of our property, including requiring riders and employees to wear face coverings that fully cover their noses and mouths, arranging for more frequent sanitization of high-touch surfaces on vehicles, installing UVC air handler emitters on our buses and fogging sanitizing product throughout our vehicles daily."
Rock Region will test the systems to see if they might be better than the fogging solution, which leaves a residue. Interest in the transit industry is high on how effective and efficient the UVC systems will work on mass transit, according to the agency.
"We look forward to aiding our peers across the country with lessons learned at the conclusion of this project," Frazier said.