Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority© (PARTA©) constructed this large cascade fast fill station to serve their fleet of Transit buses serving the Kent Ohio area. The station was designed to provide high speed fueling of the PARTA© fleet but also to provide full public access fueling for both light and heavy-duty vehicles.

Marathon’s role on this project was as a CNG specialist on the Architect led design team working for PARTA©. Marathon also supported PARTA© negotiations with the gas utility to contract for the supply of high pressure (300+ psig) gas to the site—although a high-pressure gas supply adds a capital cost item, it also reduces cost of the gas dryer and compressors both initially and operationally. The final design and construction were provided by a design-build contractor following the design team’s conceptual design and detailed equipment specifications. This station was designed to provide high performance as well as high reliability and safety, and it was designed and constructed within a very tight budget.

Cascade fast fill stations are designed to provide high speed fueling during peak periods such as morning roll-out and afternoon roll-in. Cascade fast fill is well suited to fleets of light duty vehicles, fleets that fuel randomly or in several peaks during the day or where peak fueling occurs over a limited period of time such as 60 to 90 minutes.