Federal Courthouse increases security, fortifications

Springfield's Federal Court-house is fortifying its defenses.

In the next 30 days, the federal courts building at St. Louis Street and John Q. Hammons Parkway will undergo a $400,000 enhance-ment of its security features, including nearly 100 18-inch thick concrete bollards, steel and aluminum fencing, automatic entry gates with card access and closed-circuit electronic monitoring.

The Springfield courthouse project is part of an ongoing program to beef up security at federal buildings, said C. H. Rosser, assistant administrator for the Heartland Region of the General Services Administration. Once begun, work should take 75 days to complete, he added.

As a result of the Oklahoma City bombing, 9-11 and persistent security threats, all qualifying buildings are assessed according to specific guidelines, said Bond Faulwell, deputy regional administrator for the Heartland Region of the GSA.

The Heartland Region is responsible for more than 400 general-purpose federal office buildings and court-houses throughout Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska, said Faulwell. "We review every single building in our inventory."

Designer armor

The Springfield courthouse is a "fast-track project, which falls between the average range of $250,000 to $500,000 for similar contracts, said Greg Stanger, operations manager and part owner of Stanger Industries, the Kansas-City based general contractor for the project.

The initial completion date was set for Oct. 1, "but with all the design changes, I'm sure we're going to be working into November," Stanger said.

Stanger will have an onsite superintendant and two project management personnel overseeing the work.

Design work is being done by Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell Architects out of Kansas City, said Dale Duncan, project manager for the firm. It's part of the BNIM's five-year "indefinite delivery contract" it has with the GSA to do work in a four-state region.

Eliminating the chinks

There will be nearly 100 vehicle-crash bollards, said Jerry Heeszel, commercial estimator for Carnahan White Fencing Company. They will be spaced every four feet along the already landscaped areas bordering St. Louis Street and John Q. Hammons Parkway.

Each bollard will be installed into a 400-foot-long buried retaining wall that is 24 inches wide and four feet deep, which will then be filled with concrete, Heeszel said. "This is protection from being able to drive into the front of the building."

The cost of the bollards will be approximately $100,000, Heeszel said.

Heeszel said Carnahan White will also be installing the perimeter fence and automatic gates, but didn't know what the price tag was for those items.

Budget increases

Rosser said the 2002 budget for security improvements in his four-state region was $2.5 million, while the federal budget was about $60 million. These figures reflect a new federal priority in addressing vulnerable structures.

The budgets for 2001 were $939,000 for the Heartland Region and $16 million nationally, while in 2000 the figures were $702,000 and $10 million, respectively.

Money that has been used for other more ordinary needs like building improvements and architectural renovations is now being directed toward increasing security measures to update several structures, Faulwell said.

Springfield's Federal Courthouse is leased by the federal government for $460,201 annually, Rosser said. John Q. Hammons owns the facility.