PORT ANGELES — The Joint Public Safety Facility project is poised to move to the detailed design phase later this month after the Clallam County commissioners agreed to stick with the traditional design-bid-build process for building it, according to Undersheriff Ron Cameron, Emergency Operations Center manager.
“We presented our determinations and requested a decision from the commissioners on project delivery,” Cameron wrote in a Monday afternoon email. “We had been requested to research alternative forms of delivery, most notably, GC/CM or General Contractor/Construction Manager options.
“After reviewing all aspects of the various deliveries, we decided to stay with the traditional design-bid build. This paves the way for us to approve a contract addendum with our Architect and Engineering firm (OAC Services Inc.) to proceed with detailed design, the next phase,” he wrote.
Cameron wrote that, due to the July 4 holiday next week, the earliest the commissioners will see the contract addendum is the July 10 work session. Then, after review during the work session, the addendum should be on the July 18 regular meeting agenda for approval.
A PowerPoint presentation included in the commissioners’ agenda packet shows detailed design, “Phase 2b,” lasting from August 2023 to October 2024. Then building construction, “Phase 3,” would last from November 2024 to February 2026.
After a long search, Port Angeles and Clallam County agreed in April to buy private property on the 2000 block of West Edgewood Drive behind Airport Garden Center.
The property has been vacant since the 1940s and meets the necessary criteria of being between 3 and 5 acres with access to Fairchild International Airport and high-speed internet.
The estimated $13 million facility would house the Clallam County Emergency Operations Center, which is activated during disasters such as a massive earthquake or other emergencies, as well as the Emergency Management division of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office and Peninsula Communications (PenCom, which handles 911 calls).
In a February meeting, Project Manager Dale Jackson gave a nuts-and-bolts account of the design and construction process for a complicated new building.
The schematic design, which is collecting all the features in the design phase, is the real first phase of what Jackson considers real detailed design.
“That’s where we are collecting all of the features and all of the data about the building and the site that we want to incorporate in that. And we work with the engineers and the architects to make sure they all go into the design,” he told the commissioners in February.
After that, a detailed floor plan is developed and engineering work on the building design is started.
During design development, blueprints and documents for construction are created, then the architects and engineers generate the documents that contractors will use to submit bids and build the building.
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Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached by email at brian.gawley@peninsuladailynews.com.
