City of Aurora Public Safety Training Center

Lead Certified

The City of Aurora Public Safety Training Center (CAPSTC) consisted of seven different projects to be designed, built and integrated together in a short time frame. Work included:

  • 23-acres of extensive site work, converting a former bomb testing area
  • Building almost two miles of a force main system to get sewage tied into a water treatment facility, which included boring through wetlands
  • A 43,366-sf education and training building designed with flexibility to meet the needs of multiple stakeholders
  • A new 7,000-sf, five-story drill tower structure
  • A 3,500-sf class-A burn building
  • An on-site pump house and sustainable water system to recycle water used after fire training
  • 4.2 acres of 7-in concrete paving for an Emergency Vehicle Operations Course (EVOC), which was fast-track delivered to be completed in October before winter conditions set in

The completed joint-training campus now serves Aurora’s police, public works and fire departments to be more effective as a team when responding to emergency scenes, such as the 2012 Aurora theater shootings. Beyond the expected complexities of this project, the design-build team faced extraordinary measures, such as removing bombs from the site, experiencing a main access site closure due to an over-booked air show and keeping all personnel safe when a tornado touched down.

City of Aurora

Municipal

Studiotrope

Aurora, CO

53,866 sf

ENR Mountain States, Best Project Awards, Government / Public Building Project of the Year

ABC Rocky Mountain Chapter, Excellence in Construction, Institutional, $10 to $25M - 1st Place

ABC National, Excellence in Construction, Institutional, $10 to $25M - Pyramid Award

USGBC LEED Silver Certified

City of Aurora Public Safety Training Center Burn Building and Training Space

Normally, a building on fire is a bad thing. For the CAPSTC project, structures were created expecting to be set on fire. The nature and intent of a place where city emergency responders can train is unique and requires innovative solutions and approaches to design and construction.

Requiring untraditional elements, such as grooved concrete for ladder training, propane-fed steel fire props that mimic furniture on fire, dirty classrooms for gun training and large walls designed for rappelling, the training campus creates a training ground for simulating real-life emergency scenarios.

“Teamwork, along with the leadership of AP, the City and its Consultants, resulted in a highly functional, safety training campus that will help meet the needs of our community for years to come.”

James Brown, PE, Project Construction Manager, City of Aurora

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