Board Approves State-of-the-Art Police Facility at LAX
On May 3,, the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners (BOAC) authorized the award of phase one of a two-phase design-build contract for the comprehensive engineering, design, demolition, preconstruction and construction for the new Airport Police Facility at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The contract was awarded to Hansel Phelps.
“This new Airport Police Facility will consolidate most of our policing functions and responsibilities under one state-of-the-art roof, and allows us to be more efficient and creative in how the men and women of the Los Angeles Airport Police do their jobs,” said Patrick Gannon, deputy executive director for safety and security at Los Angeles World Airports. “By bringing together our personnel, we will be able to better coordinate responses to incidents, improve our intradepartmental training, and utilize cutting-edge law enforcement technologies and practices.”
The Airport Police Division (APD) of Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) currently operates out of nine separate locations separated by six miles. This separation poses challenges to the daily APD operations and emergency response. The new Airport Police Facility will co-locate many of the APD’s functions onto one site. The project is intended to improve the communication and coordination of operations and resources for essential public safety services at LAX. When completed, it will be one of the largest police facilities in the state.
“The men and women of the Los Angeles Airport Police Department are grateful to the Board of Airport Commissioners and Los Angeles World Airports CEO Deborah Flint for supporting our new Airport Police Facility, which will allow us to reach an even higher level of service to our community,” said David Maggard, Chief of Police for the Los Angeles Airport Police. “We are incredibly excited about this new facility, as it will allow us to bring together sworn and civilian staff from nine different locations, creating a model for how personnel integration, state-of-the-art technology, and best practices in design can improve how we protect the public and our airport.”
The BOAC action moves forward the steps required for the construction of a purpose-built Airport Police Facility structure, designed to accommodate the continuous operations of critical police functions with the infrastructure to support the next generation of law enforcement technologies and practices. The project will include the redevelopment of approximately 12 acres at the northeast corner of Westchester Boulevard and Loyola Boulevard, and will include a new building, a new parking structure, and a series of indoor and outdoor functional spaces for APD. Final plans are still in process, but the location may include, but not be limited by, the Office of Operations, Office of Support Services, Office of Homeland Security & Intelligence, Traffic and Security Group, Bomb Disposal Unit, K-9 Unit, a Practice Range, and Emergency Services Unit.
The Airport Police Facility will be delivered in two phases. The first phase includes mobilization, design, preconstruction and early enabling work. The second phase will include construction and commissioning. The building is expected to be open and fully functioning by the second quarter of 2021.
