Wiegmann Associates has completed work on the St. Charles County Emergency Management’s new $20 million Emergency Operations Center in O’Fallon, MO. The new facility consolidates all of the county’s emergency resources under one roof and speeds response time. Contracting Business magazine awarded Wiegmann Associates a Design/Build award for the project. Wiegmann was the Engineer of Record (EOR) and design/build HVAC mechanical contractor for the project. Brinkmann Constructors was the general contractor.
The 30,000-square-foot, one-story building houses day-to-day operations of the Department of Emergency Communications, St. Charles County Police Department’s Division of Emergency Management and a 1,400-square-foot data center for county information technology operations and the county-wide emergency radio communications system.
Wiegmann’s scope of work included the design and installation of heating and cooling infrastructure for the facility and the mission-critical data center. Wiegmann built 100% redundancy into the HVAC systems and data center to ensure uninterrupted operation under any conditions. Because the facility must operate during natural disasters and terrorist threats, it was built to comply with ICC500, the design and construction standard for storm shelters.
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 would start to cut off airflow to non-critical areas so critical areas such as the data center remained conditioned. 
The HVAC system also provides tight humidity control to protect evidence housed in a 6,200-square-foot addition to the adjacent St. Charles County Police Department. A 6,300-square-foot addition to the adjacent fleet storage building is being used for maintenance and storage of the County’s Emergency’s vehicles and equipment.
This was the first time St. Charles County has engaged in the design/build process. All other County buildings have been constructed with the design/bid/build process.
St. Charles County Emergency Management maintains the St. Charles County Emergency Operations Center (EOC), which coordinates with the cities within St. Charles County, as well as neighboring jurisdictions and state and federal agencies during emergency activations. The facility also monitors weather and satellite data to provide warnings and information to the public. Public warning systems such as outdoor warning sirens and emergency cable television broadcasts can be initiated directly from the EOC. The Operations Center Communications Room monitors and communicates with emergency response agencies on their frequencies.
Wiegmann Associates is a St. Louis-based mechanical contractor serving the commercial, industrial and institutional markets, and a national leader in design/build HVAC projects. Since 1995, Wiegmann Associates has engineered and installed innovative, energy-saving and cost-efficient HVAC solutions and automation controls for clients in a wide range of industries. Wiegmann also provides 24-hour preventative maintenance programs and service in the St. Louis region. Wiegmann is ranked among the top 50 specialty contractors in the Midwest by Engineering News Record and the top 10 largest mechanical contractors by the St. Louis Business Journal.