St. Charles County Emergency Operations Center

Project Scope

Wiegmann Associates designed and installed HVAC systems for the St. Charles County Emergency Management’s new $20 million Emergency Operations Center in O’Fallon, MO. The 30,000-square-foot, one–story building houses the day-today operations of the Emergency Communications, St. Charles County Police Department’s Division of Emergency Management and a 1,400-square-foot mission critical data center for county information technology operations and the countywide emergency radio communications system.

Project Challenge/Solution

St. Charles County needed a cost-effective HVAC system that was reliable, efficient and would meet the stringent standards required for this type of facility. Wiegmann’s HVAC solution delivers lower first costs and operating costs, is simpler to operate than other considered options and accommodates future expansion.

Because the facility must continue to operate during natural disasters and terrorist threats, it was built to comply with ICC500, the design and construction standard for storm shelters. Wiegmann built 100% redundancy into the HVAC systems and data center to ensure uninterrupted operation under any conditions.

A Building Automation System (BAS) prioritizes cooling for critical areas. If building temperatures rise above a set point due to multiple equipment failures, the BAS system will start to cut off airflow to non-critical areas to allow the critical areas to remain conditioned.

The new HVAC system provides tight humidity control to protect evidence housed in a 6,200-square-foot addition to the adjacent St. Charles County Police Department.