County Executive Parisi Breaks Ground on Dane County East District Campus
May 28, 2015
Stephanie Miller, Communications Director, 608-267-8823
Construction Created 376 Jobs
TOWN OF COTTAGE GROVE- Today flanked by Camosy construction company officials, subcontractors, and local elected officials, County Executive Parisi broke ground on Dane County East District Campus. Dane County East District Campus will house two new facilities, the Regional Medical Examiner’s Complex and the East District Highway facility. This project created 376 jobs. On Friday of this week, Project Big Step will host a construction recruitment at 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the Labor Temple for experienced construction workers for this project. Construction is set to be completed by July 2016. The total construction cost for the project is just over $22 million.
“Dane County is doing what the public looks for from government - - sharing resources and offering critical core services regardless of political boundaries,” said Joe Parisi Dane County Executive. “We are increasing efficiency, decreasing the burden on taxpayers and bringing state of the art medical examiner’s office to Dane County.”
These facility’s will help provide core services to the region, including a new Medical Examiner’s Complex that will coordinate death investigations, assisting law enforcement agencies from a number of Wisconsin counties. The new facility will greatly expand the ability of the Medical Examiner’s Office to coordinate even the most complicated death investigations and include the most state-of-the-art forensic technology to ensure work is both thorough and conducted in a timely fashion. This will greatly aid local law enforcement and prosecutors in resolving the most complex cases. A new agreement started the first of the year, effectively merging Medical Examining operations and death investigations between Dane and Rock Counties. In addition, Dane County provides autopsy medicine and forensic investigative services to 12 other Wisconsin counties and one county in Illinois.
“On behalf of everyone at Camosy Construction and all of our subcontractors, thank you for this great opportunity to be part of such an exciting project,” John P Camosy President & CEO. “We look forward to working with the County, your architects and all of the subs to make this project a great success and both of these buildings something to be proud of for many years to come.”
The other facility slated for construction is a new highway garage to improve services to the eastern parts of Dane County. This new garage will consolidate two existing highway facilities and reduce operating costs. Both the Medical Examiner’s Complex and Highway Garage will include a number of “green” features, including capturing heat from renewable electricity generating engines at the nearby Dane County Landfill and a solar array to generate power from the sun.
“Dane County worked with the Building Trades to negotiate a Project Labor Agreement for these projects,” remarked Dave Brandson, Executive Director of Building and Construction Trades Council of South Central Wisconsin. “This will ensure the County that the construction on these facilities will be performed by skilled Building Trades workers. We look forward to doing these projects and delivering a high quality finished project to Dane County in a timely fashion.”
Dane County East District Campus will allow quick access to major thoroughfares like the Interstate and Highway 12/18 and for smarter deployment of resources during snow events. The county’s new fleet of snowplows fueled by compressed natural gas (CNG) will be housed at this new highway garage. As part of Parisi’s CNG by 2023 initiative to covert the County fleet to CNG, CNG vehicles will be housed at this facility. The existing CNG filling station located at the Landfill across the road will be moved to this site, and the county will use it to produce even more CNG vehicle fuel from garbage gas.
Regional Medical Examiner’s Complex
The Medical Examiner facility is approximately 28,500 square feet providing office, training and laboratory space for the Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office. It will house a Disaster Recovery Data Center a technology-equipped 911 Training Center.
Generally, the scope includes a one story, masonry and metal clad steel framed office/laboratory with a pre-engineered metal garage component. Uniquely, building systems will utilize waste heat from the landfill and the project includes the installation of solar panels. The design incorporates access to natural daylight to support staff wellbeing and reduce the need to use the energy efficient light fixtures. The arrangement of the program functions and building infrastructure is designed to accommodate potential future expansion while the facility would remain operational. Designed by Dorschner|Associates, Inc.
East District Highway Facility
The highway building is approximately 84,000 square feet providing storage for nearly 70 vehicles, routine maintenance, parts storage, offices and locker rooms for the Dane County Highway Department. Part of the vehicle storage area is designed to be converted to full fleet maintenance including a 7.5 ton bridge crane during a future phase which would also add substantial additional vehicle storage. Fleet service amenities include fluid and air distribution, manual wash bay, and efficient traffic flow and layout designed to maximize employee productivity.
Energy saving features include building envelope 10% better than code, 5,780 square feet of daylight glazing allowing reduction of artificial lighting, all LED exterior and interior lighting, utilization of waste heat from the landfill and roof mounted photovoltaic panels.
Building is a single story structure with a partial mezzanine constructed of low maintenance insulated precast concrete load bearing wall panels, steel joists and girders. All glazing systems contain double pane insulated, low-e, tinted windows with thermally broken frames.
The site also includes a 13,000 square foot salt storage building capable of storing a large quantity of road salt allowing the county to purchase salt throughout the year when pricing is favorable. In addition, a new fueling canopy dispensing unleaded, diesel and compressed natural gas to county fleet will be constructed. CNG equipment relocated from the landfill will provide part of the fuel supply.
Site master planning included expansion of the highway department and medical examiner buildings, as well as future cold storage and a sheriff substation. The design includes storm water infiltration and bio retention features. Designed by Kueny Architects.
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