Case Study

Polk County Law Enforcement Center

Industry

Government, HVAC

Project Location

Columbus, NC

Project Scope

37,800 SF New Facility

Cooper Construction built the jail and law enforcement facility for Polk County in Columbus, North Carolina.

A detention building is a sequence of secure boundaries, and every door, wall and duct crossing one of them is a coordination item. The detention side has a 60 bed capacity in prefabricated modular steel cells built for double occupancy, arranged in indirect podular supervision dayrooms with access to recreation yards.

The law enforcement side holds an evidence processing lab and storage, a vehicular evidence bay, a training room, locker rooms, records storage and offices for the sheriff, investigations, patrol and narcotics. The building also carries a kitchen, laundry, an enclosed vehicle sallyport, intake and booking, a medical suite, video visitation and the magistrate's offices.

The facility is 37,800 square feet on a concrete foundation with concrete masonry and steel above it, faced in brick veneer. Cooper carried the mechanical work as well: heat pumps, rooftop package units, mini splits, terminal units and unit heaters on seismic curbs, a condensing boiler with primary and secondary hot water pumps, expansion tank and air separator, and fire and smoke dampers, security bars and a full seismic package of vibration isolators and sway bracing throughout. The 22 acre site is master planned for a courthouse and further county buildings.