Woonsocket Police, Fire & 911 Space Needs Study

The engagement

What We Did

The City of Woonsocket, in northern Rhode Island, engaged The Center for Public Safety to establish what its next generation of public safety buildings would have to accomplish. The assignment carried three programs at once: a new police headquarters, a single fire station replacing Stations 2 and 3 while Stations 1 and 4 remain in service, and a regional 911 dispatch center. We assessed the current facilities and operations of both departments, issued questionnaires, visited each site to document existing conditions and evaluate candidate locations, and drew on architects, engineers, and general contractors to test the space allocations against comparable projects completed elsewhere in the country.

Programming was built room by room. The police program covers public access areas, administration, investigative and forensic units, operations, uniform patrol, property and evidence, communications, staff support and training, and building systems, totaling 42,339 square feet at a 2045 planning horizon. The fire program was developed in two configurations, a five-bay station of 27,285 square feet and a ten-bay station of 48,307 square feet, each sized for service twenty years out and each examined for how the new station would work alongside the two retained stations to hold coverage and response times. A 4,200 square foot regional dispatch center was programmed so that it could either stand alone or be folded into a larger building.

CPS then developed cost estimates for seven configurations, ranging from standalone buildings to a combined public safety complex, each carrying line-item allowances for construction, site development, technology systems, specialized equipment, furnishings, professional services, contingency, and escalation reflecting current Rhode Island market conditions. The city was left with a set of comparable choices rather than a single proposal. CPS continues in an owner’s representative role, carrying the approved program forward through the next phases of development so that the requirements established in the study survive design and construction.