LAWA BREAKS GROUND ON NEW STATE-OF-THE-ART AIRPORT POLICE FACILITY

Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) has broken ground on new state-of-the-art complex for LAX’s police officers. 

Located just north of the Central Terminal Area in Westchester, the new $220 million building will consolidate police operations at the airport by providing a central base for officers currently split between eight different locations.

“The new consolidated LAWA Police facility, which will watch over all of LAX as well as the LAX Northside, will improve public safety and allow for faster responses times to calls on or immediately adjacent to airport property,” says Mike Bonin, Los Angeles City Council member for District 11.

“It will also be a revitalising improvement for the neighbourhood, bringing more business and economic growth to the many small businesses in Downtown Westchester.”

Valeria Velasco, vice president of LAWA’s Board of Airport Commissioners, enthused: “The design of this new facility is as functional as it is beautiful, and will help us to continue operating LAX safely and securely, which is important not only to our guests, but  to our neighbours as well.

“This is LAWA’s first project groundbreaking in Westchester that is part of our Northside Plan and we are excited to see it get underway.”

Consolidation of the current police facilities was a recommendation in the 2011 Report of the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Airport Security.

The 160,000-square-foot building will be located on the northeast corner of Westchester Parkway and Loyola Boulevard. The 12-acre development will also include a new 960-stall parking structure.

LAWA CEO, Deborah Flint, remarked: “Ensuring the safety and security of our guests and employees is the foundation of everything we do at Los Angeles World Airports, and this new state-of-the-art Airport Police Facility will facilitate more efficient operations across our various police divisions and with our partner agencies.

“The Los Angeles Airport Police Division is the largest airport police department in the country, and with this new facility our APD will be even better equipped to serve our airports for decades to come.”

The new 160,000-square-foot facility will include space for the Los Angeles Airport Police Division’s (APD) Office of Operations, Office of Support Services, Office of Homeland Security and Intelligence, Emergency Service Unit, Traffic and Security Group, Bomb Disposal Unit, K-9 Unit, a practice range and a multi-purpose room. It will also include a landscaped paseo along Westchester Parkway.

Sustainability will be central to the design of the new complex, which is expected to be open by mid-2021 when it will be one of the largest police facilities in the state.

LAWA notes that the facility will have the maximum size solar/photo-voltaic system allowed, boast dual-piping for future recycled water use, and be built to CalGreen Tier 1 standards and designed to attain, at a minimum, LEED Silver certification.

Its design and construction team is being led by Skidmore, Owens and Merrill (SOM) and Hensel Phelps (HP).

“Hensel Phelps is proud to have been entrusted with the delivery of this historic facility for the LAX Airport Police Department, a long time in the making,” noted HP’s programme executive, Jeff Brunswig.