Carlsbad’s Joint First Responders Training Facility

Carlsbadistan’s Joint First Responders Training Facility located on Orion Way across the street from the Carlsbad Skatepark in the Carlsbad Safety Center is beginning to take shape. Over 50 cement truckloads unloaded on the scrapped lot and now we’re able to get a much better idea of how large the place will be when it is completed in early 2012.

The complex construction project will include installation of specialized features in the buildings, which will artificially create smoke and fire for training exercises. The shooting range will include high-tech computer-operated targets for police training. . . . “The City of Carlsbad has an excellent public safety record with low crime rates and one of the top-rated fire departments in the state, and this safety training center will help keep our city personnel well-trained to meet the community’s needs,” Hammann noted.

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Construction workers recently completed the “first pour” at the city’s new Joint First Responders Training Facility, filling pre-formed trenches with 500 cubic yards—or 50 truckloads–of concrete.

The concrete formed the foundation of the largest building at the site, which will house a police shooting range and classrooms.

Ground was broken in June on the $16.5 million facility, which is being built next to the existing Carlsbad Public Safety and Service Center on Orion Way. It will allow city police, firefighters, and street and utility crews to train together on real-life scenarios without having to travel to surrounding communities for training, increasing public safety in the city and decreasing costs for equipment and labor.

Specific elements of the training center include the two-story shooting range and classroom building; a five-story tower where police, fire and safety workers can conduct trainings, including fire simulations and tactical exercises; and a smaller building that will be used by firefighters to train for fighting residential fires and by police for tactical training, and other elements.

In all, some 5,000 cubic yards of cement will be poured at the site by the time the project is completed in early 2012.

“Work on the site is proceeding on schedule, said Skip Hammann, City of Carlsbad project manager. “Since construction began, crews have graded the site and dug trenches for the building foundations.”

During the site preparation, workers encountered an underground layer of rock at the site, which had to be blasted with explosives before it could be cleared away. Workers drilled 375 holes at the site and filled each with six pounds of explosives, which were triggered with dynamite.

The blasting was carried out in a series of controlled explosions on one day at the construction site.

The complex construction project will include installation of specialized features in the buildings, which will artificially create smoke and fire for training exercises. The shooting range will include high-tech computer-operated targets for police training.

“The City of Carlsbad has an excellent public safety record with low crime rates and one of the top-rated fire departments in the state, and this safety training center will help keep our city personnel well-trained to meet the community’s needs,” Hammann noted.

The site will also include areas where city workers can train for rescues in trenches and confined spaces.

When the center is not in use by City of Carlsbad public safety workers, it will be made available to agencies outside the city, furthering the city’s commitment to regional cooperation.

The facility was designed to meet green building standards and will include such features as high-efficiency lighting, low water-use fixtures and state-of-the-art heating and ventilation.

Water used during firefighter training will be captured and used for landscape irrigation, and specially designed filters will remove lead and other particulates from the air caused by the discharge of weapons in the shooting range.