Travelers along Broad Street will see a far different thoroughfare through the heart of the city in October 2017. That’s when the highly anticipated bus rapid transit known as “GRTC Pulse” is scheduled to whisk riders along a 7.6- mile route from Willow Lawn in the West End to Rocketts Landing in the East End.

While GRTC’s regular fleet of buses will continue to make their appointed stops curbside along Broad Street, the rapid transit route will run every 10 to 15 minutes — and with fewer stops — along a dedicated lane that will include the median.

According to preliminary designs of the $54 million project that were unveiled Monday and Tuesday, parts of the route will include 3.2 miles of lanes dedicated only for the rapid transit buses. One will run down the middle of Broad Street beginning in the West End from Thompson to Foushee streets. Another will be curbside from 4th to 14th streets in Downtown.

Construction of the median lanes will reduce Broad Street’s normal travel lanes from three to two lanes in each direction along that route.

GRTC officials, city representatives, design engineers and others discussed the project and answered questions from members of the public and others at the meetings at the University of Richmond’s campus in Downtown.

They also updated Richmond City Council on the project Monday night.

“We’re still in the design phase. We just completed 30 percent design plans,” GRTC CEO David Green told the Free Press prior to Monday’s meeting at UR.

“It’s exactly on schedule,” he added of the project that was first announced in fall 2014.

Construction would begin in mid- to late 2016.

Not everyone is happy with the project as it currently is proposed. Some residents and business owners living and working along the route worry the plan will negatively impact them.

One example: GRTC officials are proposing to eliminate 306 parking spaces along Broad Street from Thompson Street to 4th Street to make way for the bus route. Initially, they had recommended removing 708 parking spaces, but pared that back after business owners loudly complained that could drive away customers and threaten their businesses.

Also, all on-street parking would be removed between 4th and 14th streets to accommodate the exclusive rapid transit curbside lanes.

Officials said that they would seek permission to use some parking lots during times they’re not being used along and off Broad Street to help compensate for the loss of parking spaces. They said an agreement has been reached with the Science Museum of Virginia to provide 10 parking spaces for a park-and-ride, similar to larger ones available to bus riders in the suburbs.

Some community members have put signs up protesting the loss of the parking spaces and noting other negative impacts they fear the project will have. Some residents complain GRTC and the city are rushing the project and have not adequately sought their input.

The RVA Coalition for Smart Transit, an umbrella group of neighborhood associations, has formed to “serve as a voice” for the community on mass transit issues.

“The current bus rapid transit plans for RVA could do more damage than good, damaging the progress that has occurred on Broad Street during the last 20 years,” the group states on its website.

The coalition also has voiced concerns about the loss of loading zones along the route — 55 of 90 loading zones would be eliminated — and about the lack of accessibility to public transit for low-income communities.

GRTC officials said Monday that the route would include 14 platform stations for bus riders. They estimate there will be more than 3,000 daily boardings along the route and about 500 new daily riders. Riders will pay fares in advance on the platforms instead of paying once they board the bus as they do now.

The price to ride the rapid transit buses would be $1.50, the same as the fare for regular buses now.

To serve the rapid transit route, GRTC has purchased 10 40-foot compressed natural gas buses at a total cost of $4.7 million, said GRTC spokesperson Carrie Rose Pace. Each can seat 43 riders and will have handrails and assistance for standing passengers, she added.

During peak morning and evening rush hours, GRTC officials said, up to seven buses would pick up riders in estimated 10-minute intervals along the route, cutting by about a third the time most riders normally wait on weekdays for a bus. Riders would wait about 15 minutes between buses during non-peak hours.

Officials estimate it would take between 28 to 31 minutes for a bus to go from one end of the route to the other, where it takes about an hour now.

The buses are equipped with technology to signal to green lights to remain green until the buses pass through an intersection.

Project proponents contend that the rapid bus service will help create economic opportunities for the more than 30,000 people who live within a half mile of the bus rapid transit stations and the more than 77,000 jobs in the area.

Dr. Thad Williamson, director of the city’s Office on Community Wealth Building, said he sees it as the first step in creating a regional bus transportation hub to expand job opportunities for everyone, including many of the city’s impoverished residents.

Almost half of the project will be funded through a federal grant. To cover the remaining cost, the state will provide $16.9 million; the city, $7.6 million; and Henrico County has committed to $400,000.

This week’s meetings were the fourth community sessions held quarterly since state and city officials announced that the area had won a roughly $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to support the project.

The grant was awarded contingent on all the other partners in the project providing their financial backing.

“The public is getting more and more excited about it, as we continue to implement improvements based on their feedback and comments,” Mr. Green said. “It’s becoming a better project for the region.

“It’s going to be a better transportation system. It’s going to spur a lot of economic opportunities up and down Broad Street. And it’s going to provide better access and mobility to people that currently doesn’t exist with the regular fixed routes.”