Fairfax County’s new, public safety, emergency operations and transportation center isn’t fully staffed or completely up-and-running just yet. But it’s well on its way.

And last Tuesday, July 21, it opened its doors — at least, some of them — for a tour sponsored by the Central Virginia Chapter of WTS (Women’s Transportation Seminar).

"WTS is a professional group advancing the careers of women in transportation," said Tammy Thomas, a vice president of the Central Virginia Chapter. "Because this is a new, multi-agency, state-of-the-art facility, we wanted our members to see what’s available here."

WTS has state and industry personnel who work in consulting and engineering, so Thomas wanted them to see this building for professional development, plus networking opportunities. Attendees also included Maryland transportation officials, U.S. Department of Transportation employees and members of NEMA (National Emergency Management Agency).

Called the McConnell Public Safety and Transportation Operations Center (MPSTOC), after former Springfield District Supervisor Elaine McConnell, the building is on some 200 acres on West Ox Road near Route 29 in Fairfax.

The public-safety complex is being built in phases, through 2025, with capability for future expansion. Phase one is the 114,000-square-foot MPSTOC and the 33,000-square-foot Forensics Facility attached to it. A partnership between the county, state and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the facility broke ground in late November 2005, and some of its first occupants moved in last summer.

It will serve as a central command facility where state and county representatives join together during a national or weather-related emergency. But certain county and state police functions are already operating there now on a regular basis, and these entities are what the visitors learned about on their tour.

Leading the way and providing information were MPSTOC General Manager Tracy Shelton, who manages the partnership here between the county and state; Fairfax County EOC (Emergency Operations Center) Manager Sulayman Brown; and VDOT’s Technology Transition Manager Tom Phillips, who’s helping transfer VDOT employees and functions here from Arlington.

Contained within MPSTOC will be the county's Department of Public Safety Communications (911 call center), Office of Emergency Management and Emergency Operations Center. Shelton said the 911 center will go operational here, the end of September.

"The Forensics Facility, which is separate operationally, has been here for a year now," she said. It’s off-limits to the public, but has sections dealing with the Northern Virginia Regional Information System (NOVARIS, helpful in fingerprint identification), crime-scene analysis and electronic surveillance. There’s also room for a future DNA lab.

"The new EOC will be up-and- running, later this summer," said Shelton. "VDOT’S been here since November [2008], and the State Police, since December."

It’s a secure structure, with multiple backup systems and safeguarded access to the crucial functions the county will rely on in the event of a disaster, when rapid and seamless communication is vital. Said Shelton: "It’s a medium-security facility built to U.S. Embassy security standards."

Some 350 people will work in MPSTOC, around the clock, when it’s fully operational. Already there are the State Police Division 7 call-takers and dispatchers, plus VDOT's Smart Traffic Center comprised of its Traffic Management and Signal systems.

"MOST FOLKS came from older, retrofitted facilities, so this is like a dream for them," said Shelton. "A lot of groups designed it and even chose the furnishings together."

She then led the visitors on a tour of the 3,600-squre-foot EOC area, "for significant, unexpected events, such as weather and terrorist activities," plus its operations floor for VDOT, 911 and State Police. Said Shelton: "Each partner has its own technical staff, plus a small IT staff supports the whole structure."

The complex will also include a 165,000-square-foot building for VDOT's Northern Virginia District Office and State Police Division 7 Administration. It’ll be four stories with separate entrances for each entity. "They’ll move into their building across the street, the end of next year," said Shelton. "It will be silver-level, LEEDS certified."

Standing in a room filled with long tables covered with computers and surrounded by large TV screens — including one, huge screen adorning an entire wall — Brown discussed what will happen in the EOC.

"This room holds 94 people," he said. "During an event, we’d contact emergency personnel to come here to provide support staff for incidents. It’ll serve three functions — monitoring the event; partial activation, bringing in 10-20 people to manage a situation; and full activation, involving all 94 people."

"There’s a conference room nearby where we have video and audio communications and a Smartboard and we can talk to our federal partners," continued Brown. "Each room has a panel with which you can control everything in the EOC, and there are other rooms like it nearby. All senior county personnel, such as the county and deputy executives, would sit in a separate room during an emergency."

Brown called an adjacent, watch office "the eyes and ears of the county. It monitors police and fire units and receives information from the county during an emergency. It also monitors terrorist activity around the world, biochemical sensors and dam water levels around the country."

However, the EOC will also come in handy for more mundane activities directly affecting area residents. "We’d use this room, for example, if there’s an overturned gasoline truck on I-66 and it’s going to be shut down for hours," explained Brown. "We could distribute information to the media about it from here."

SCHOOL AND government closings will also be sent from that office and, said Brown, "We can communicate with other jurisdictions in the case of multi-jurisdictional events. On the big screen, we can put up GIS maps of an incident scene, international and local TV stations, helicopter photos from the scene and streamlined net videos — anything that would help people in this room deal with their response to the event."

Anywhere from 1-42 different elements may be placed on the screen, with workers able to listen to information from the particular one they want. Furthermore, said Brown, "People can log onto their computers here and see and hear everything going on in the EOC from their desks, while still doing their jobs."

"All our public safety representatives are now within walking distance of each other," he added. "So it’s an important accomplishment for Fairfax County."

LOOKING THROUGH a glass wall overhead, the visitors viewed VDOT transportation operations and State Police dispatchers working on the operations floor. The county’s 911 call center and fire and police dispatchers will complete the picture.

"At the table in the center, people will be able to turn around and talk to people about how to handle an incident," said Shelton. "That’ll be pretty powerful stuff."
Since VDOT moved in, Nov. 8, said Phillips, "We’ve dealt with accidents and disabled vehicles on the roads. We have 10 work stations here, and working with the State Police, hand-in-hand, on the Fourth of July, helped us immensely. For example, through their screens, we saw a bonfire on I-66, and the Arlington Fire Department responded."

"Having the public-safety people here enables us to have clear communication," he continued. "Every 911 call that comes in goes in the State Police’s CAD [computer-aided design] data and we’re now connected to it, so their information about incidents will pop up on our screens, too. We’re also working on CAD integration with other jurisdictions like Prince William and Arlington."

During the recent presidential election, said Phillips, "We had about 30 other agencies in here with us. So Virginia used this as its communications center on this side of the [Potomac] river and was able to communicate with agencies in [Washington], D.C."

Closer to home, he said, "Last week, 250 accidents went through here — and if we can minimize the amount of time an incident takes, it can make a big difference to traffic."