City of Chicago 911 Emergency System and Facility

Historic Project: Groundbreaking Work From Earlier in Fluor’s History

Client: City of Chicago

Location: Chicago, IL, U.S.

Business Segment: Urban Solutions

Industry: Infrastructure

Map showing the location of City of Chicago 911 Emergency System and Facility

Executive Summary

The City of Chicago selected Fluor to design and construct this important communication system and center, the most comprehensive and sophisticated public safety system and facility in the nation at the time. Our scope of work included communication system design, installation and training; CAD-based 911; fiber-optic system installation; facility design and construction.

Client's Challenge

The City of Chicago required a new emergency communication facility and system.

The radio systems would provide dispatchers and field personnel with a common radio communication network. Voice and data radio systems supported critical two-way communication and enabled field personnel access to information available to dispatchers at the center. The fire and emergency medical services data radio system included an automatic vehicle location system that enabled dispatch personnel to determine the exact location of available fire and emergency medical services.

A new, 176-mile-long, fiber-optic information highway carried voice and data traffic and provided Chicago with a complete, secured communication network that connected all police, fire and other city facilities.

Fluor's Solution

The center was a modern facility designed to maximize productivity. The 160,000-square-foot command and control center was a high-security facility, designed to dispatch police, fire and emergency medical resources while providing a comfortable, stress-mitigating environment.

The new facility incorporated a design to support round-the-clock command and control services for police and fire emergency personnel. This design could withstand and function during any natural disaster due to the facility's multiple backup communication systems and utilities.

Advanced audiovisual systems were integrated into the communication system to allow transfer and display of key data to situation rooms and to a public and press briefing area.

The energy-efficient facility ran at minimal operating and maintenance expense. A state-of-the-art building management system controlled and monitored heating, ventilation and air-conditioning; electrical; security; and fire systems for optimum operating efficiency. The durable granite building exterior was virtually maintenance free.

Conclusion

This internally secure communication network (ISCN) was one of the largest privately owned fiber-optic networks in the world at the time of construction.

A new data radio network connected more than 3,000 mobile and portable data terminals to the computer-aided dispatch system, providing wireless data communication, unit status and computer database access to police, fire and emergency medical service (EMS) units.

The new voice radio control system provided 60 radio dispatch positions access to, and control over, the existing police, fire and EMS voice radio networks. More than 100 radio transmitters and 600 radio receivers located at 80 remote sites were connected to the communication center by way of the ISCN fiber-optic network.