NEW HAVEN ENGINEERING
The range as of Jan. 22.
The new indoor police firing range is in the home stretch of completion.
The new range, in the West Rock neighborhood, was originally slated for a possible opening back in February. City Engineer Giovanni Zinn said the winter’s brutal cold and some wrangling over utilities caused a slight slowdown in the completion of the new range, but it is still on target to open this spring.
“We’re getting all the utility agreements for new gas service and electric services,” Zinn said. “We’re working with the utilities on some contractual language issues that we’re right on the tail end of.”
NEW HAVEN ENGINEERING
Progress on the indoor range in November.
Zinn estimated that nearly a month of construction was lost because of the cold. There were also some small delays in outfitting the firing range with ballistic materials because the company that does that work is based in the Midwest. But Zinn said all of the final ballistic materials for the indoor range are expected to be completed soon and about 10 days from then the lighting for the new facility should be all installed.
The building will have ballistic rubber and multiple layers of other materials to deaden the sound of gunfire, including ROCKWOOL insulation. After all the ballistic materials are in place, there will be some paving outside and clean up work to complete. But that can’t be done until paving plants open up.
“We’re very, very close to done,” Zinn said. “It’s just that final bit of coordination that we’re dragging on a little bit.”
NEW HAVEN ENGINEERING
The range all framed up in October.
The Harp administration broke ground in November 2016 on the new firing range, which is located at what was the former George D. Libby Reserve Center at 170 Wintergreen Ave. The city struck a deal with the federal government back in 2011 to acquire the property; the funding to cover its construction cost just came through from the state in 2015. (Read more about that here.)
Zinn said the project is within the estimated cost of about $1.3 million, $1 million of which is covered by a state bonding grant, and the rest with capital fund money. In addition to the firing range, an onsite classroom was built as part of the new campus.
“We did some of [the construction] with our own resources,” Zinn said. “We did the design for the foundation ourselves, our chief structural engineer worked closely with consultants to keep costs down.”
“It’s coming together very nicely,” Zinn added.