Sundt‘s latest mission critical project – a $14.6 million emergency management facility for Pima County, Ariz., known as PECOC (Pima Emergency Communications and Operations Center) – will greatly improve communication and coordination between various public safety agencies in the county and nearby city of Tucson when it is complete this June. The innovative facility will centralize communications, dispatch, and public safety answering points for the Pima County Wireless Integrated Network to meet a variety of critical needs for the community.
Sundt’s contract includes a partial building demolition, remodeling, and building a 13,400-square-foot addition to an existing, county-owned building. The completed 63,000-square-foot facility will house the 9-1-1 call center and dispatch operations of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and a consortium of fire districts that serve unincorporated Pima County, plus the Pima County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security Emergency Operations Center. Backup dispatch facilities for the City of Tucson Police and Fire Departments and a backup Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition center for Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department Operations will be housed there as well.
Sustainability is one of the project’s top priorities. In order to help PECOC achieve LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, an energy-efficient overhead HVAC system with raised flooring will be utilized to heat and cool the facility. The team is aiming to recycle as much as 75 percent of the project’s construction waste, including saving rocks that were in the original landscape and reusing them to create a new gabion wall. Masonry walls inside the building are being built by Sundt’s own crews.
The facility will be outfitted with state-of-the-art technology and security features including radio communications equipment and telecommunications infrastructure for the new regional public safety voice communications network, for which Sundt will install all of the cables. PECOC also includes high security fencing, a controlled access system, seismic bracing to prevent earthquake damage, and a number of redundant features and backup generators so that the facility never loses power.