(Washington, DC) Mayor Anthony A. Williams today signed a new citywide bus shelter contract with ClearChannel Adshel, which has agreed to build close to 800 new shelters within two years in the city’s neighborhoods and downtown and to pay the District more than $150 million over the next 20 years in exchange for advertising panels on the shelters. The District has earmarked $100 million generated from this contract to finance Mayor Williams’ Great Streets program to improve and beautify some of the major transportation corridors in the District.

"This is a triple win for the District," said Mayor Williams. "We get new, clean bus shelters and much needed revenue as well as financing for the Great Streets program that will improve the streetscape and economic vitality of key roadways in the city."

In addition to the shelters themselves, which will be made of vandal and graffiti-resistant materials, ClearChannel Adshel will provide bus maps, real-time bus arrival information in cooperation with WMATA and a computerized bicycle rental program. ClearChannel Adshel will also manage the heritage trail and directional sign programs and give the District $350,000 in ad credits for local and international DC promotion. Additionally, the company will set up a Web-based maintenance monitoring and reporting system and a 24-hour service line.

The Great Streets program that will be financed by a portion of the bus shelter revenue will improve and beautify some of the grandest corridors in Washington including: Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, H Street and Benning Road NE, Nannie Helen Burroughs, NE, Georgia Avenue and 7th Street, NW, Minnesota Avenue, NE/SE, and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and South Capitol Street. These corridors will be refurbished with new sidewalks, curbs and gutters, street lighting, trees and mass transit improvements that will help uncap the potential in the surrounding communities by attracting neighborhood retail, housing and jobs.