DUNCAN – Architectural plans for Duncan’s new fire station should be complete in the next couple of months, allowing engineers to start work on their part of the project, ADG Blatt Vice President Tony Blatt.
“We’ve been working toward getting to the point where we can actually lock this plan and allow our engineers to start,” Blatt said during a Dec. 10 presentation to the council. “Because once our engineers start, we want them to move forward, and we don’t want to make any more changes.”
The city is planning to build a new fire station at Camelback Road and U.S. Highway 81. ADG Blatt is currently working on plans for the building, which should be ready by January or February 2025.
The firm’s original drawing for the project showed a very basic, cost-effective design because architects wanted to see if the city could afford to build two fire stations with the available funds, Blatt said.
“And when it was realized that two stations were going to exceed your budget and we were going to be shooting above what you wanted to do, we really made it a priority to make this station look like what the city wanted it to be,” he said.
Armed with that information, ADG Blatt is planning to incorporate natural stone into the building, Blatt said. He added that the firm is using a pr e-engineered metal building as the basis f or the project and keeping the city’s budget – approximately $6.6 million – in mind.
“We’re not going with anything that’s going to be a high-dollar construction,” Blatt said. “We’re going to be very cost-effective with the way that we’re going to be navigating this.”
Next steps When plans for the fire station are complete, ADG Blatt will begin developing the design early next year so the engineers can start work, Blatt said. The goal is to present that information to the city and the general contractor, which will allow them to begin developing a budget for the project.
The next steps after that include drawing up construction documents and obtaining the necessary permits.
ADG Blatt will later submit those documents to the council so the board can approve a confirmed budget and construction schedule before the project is let for bidding.
“Every single trade is going to be competitively bid,” Blatt said.
He said the f irm’s goal is to release the project for construction in June 2025 and finish construction sometime in 2026.