San Mateo County's Emergency Services Datacenter

BEI Construction installed the electrical and low voltage wiring along with mechanical, rack, and air conditioning systems in the new datacenter. The datacenter is part of San Mateo County’s new Regional Operations Center, which also houses the county’s Office of Emergency Services and 911 dispatch center.

San Mateo County is home to more than 720,000 people, and the county includes rural, suburban, and urban areas. The county covers 741 square miles, and is in an area that, like much of California, can experience strong earthquakes. Inspired to upgrade emergency services infrastructure, county leaders decided to undertake the new facility.

“It’s important to protect data and keep it moving, especially in an emergency,” says BEI Construction President Mike Rantz. “Our team contributed to that effort by installing vital portions of the emergency services datacenter.”

Designed and built to last
The Regional Operations Center project began in 2016. McCarthy Building Company served as the general contractor on the 37,000-square-foot project. The county engaged BEI Construction to deliver the electrical and low voltage wiring plus the mechanical, rack, and air conditioning portions of the project.

The project is designed to operate during emergencies, and it includes systems to keep operating for up to seven days without outside water or power. More than 350 columns reaching 40 feet into the ground support the building and can protect it from disruption in the event of an earthquake.

“If I had to choose a word to describe the new facility, it would be ‘robust,’” says Rantz. “The seismic features are impressive, but we installed the systems that support data flow to be just as reliable. San Mateo County has an emergency operations facility that’s ready for just about anything.”