Case Study

Polk County Law Enforcement Center

Industry

Government

Project Location

Columbus, NC

Project Scope

37,847 SF New Facility

Cooper Construction has successfully completed the new law enforcement center in Columbus, North Carolina, for Polk County. This state-of-the-art facility houses both a jail and a sheriff’s office, along with a training facility, crime lab, and administrative offices.

Spanning 38,000 square feet, the project features brick and concrete masonry construction with steel framing. The detention area includes a 60-bed capacity with prefabricated modular steel cells designed for double occupancy. These cells are situated in indirect podular supervision dayrooms that include access to recreation yards. The law enforcement section comprises an evidence-processing lab and storage, a vehicular evidence-processing bay, a training room, locker rooms, records storage, and administrative offices for the sheriff's office, investigations, patrol, and narcotics units.

In addition to the jail and sheriff’s office, the facility boasts a kitchen, laundry area, enclosed vehicle sallyport, intake and booking area, medical suite, video visitation room, and magistrate’s offices. The jail is located on a 22-acre site that has been master-planned for future development, including a courthouse and additional county buildings.

Cooper Construction also performed HVAC work for the law enforcement center. The HVAC scope of work included comprehensive testing, adjusting, and balancing (TAB) services for both new and existing mechanical systems. This work involved balancing air distribution systems, which included both constant-volume and variable-air-volume configurations, as well as hydronic piping systems for constant-flow and variable-flow applications. 

The equipment testing and adjustment services targeted critical components such as heat exchangers, motors, condensing units, boilers, and heat transfer coils to ensure optimal performance. The scope also included diagnostic testing procedures, such as sound and vibration analysis, duct leakage testing to identify air loss issues, and control system verification to ensure that automation and operational sequences were functioning correctly.