Statewide Radio Project Boosts Safety, Efficiency for Public Agencies in Oregon

Faced with aging infrastructure and limited funding, public agencies throughout the state of Oregon collaborated to develop a plan to improve their statewide radio network.

The Oregon State Radio Project rebuilt the existing Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Oregon State Police (OSP) systems to create an integrated statewide network in partnership with the Oregon Department of Forestry, Oregon Department of Corrections and with nearly 40 local public safety agencies. The network allows for integration between state and local systems as envisioned in the original Statewide Interoperability Executive Council (SIEC) plan.

The project achieved the following objectives:

• Modernized aging microwave radio system

• Replace ODOT and OSP two-way conventional radios to meet the FCC mandates

• Provide modern, two-way trunked radio system

ODOT partnered with Black & Veatch to re-engineer a previous project plan to assign a new schedule, budget and staffing requirements to better fit Oregon’s fiscal and public safety emergency services needs and requirements.

Public Safety Radio Replacement

The project included the buildout of a 700 Mhz trunked, two-way radio system in an area that includes the Willamette Valley, north to the Columbia River Gorge, east to The Dalles and south to Bend, Oregon. The trunked radio system provides additional radio capacity to ODOT and OSP personnel in a densely populated area of the state. Implementation of the system also included installation of repeaters and site control equipment, central trunking switches and dispatch consoles. The aging analog microwave system has been upgraded to a digital platform through the replacement of microwave equipment and integration of associated routing and monitoring equipment with the new system.

The project will strategically place repeaters around the state to connect local systems, enhancing interoperability at individual local levels.

Services provided by Black & Veatch included:

• Site field survey and documentation

• Site acquisition, leasing and zoning

• Environmental assessment

• Boundary and topographic surveying services

• Geotechnical services

• Tower mapping and structural analysis

• Site development and design

• Site inspection and Quality Assurance/Quality Control during construction

The program, has which laid the foundation for statewide interoperability, provides ODOT and other Oregon public agencies increased radio coverage through advanced technology.