The new Wellton Border Patrol Station, which opened in the fall of 2011, is located inWellton, AZ, about 30 miles northeast of Yuma, AZ. As part of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector, the Wellton Station covers the western portions of Yuma, La Paz and Mojave counties in Arizona, the eastern portions of Imperial, Riverside and San Bernardino counties in California and the entire state of Nevada. The location of the Wellton Station makes it the first CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) station encountered for individuals headed east after entering the country from San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico (just over the border from Yuma). The new facility will accommodate up to 375 agents whose job it is to cover more than 3,000 square miles of territory plus 65 miles of international border, operate a busy checkpoint and oversee a remote base in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.
The CBP states that the Yuma Sector is one of the fastest growing Border Patrol Sectors in the country, having doubled in size since 2004. To accommodate the growth, a new 50,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility was built, with partial funding from the federal stimulus package. The Wellton Station facility consists of several buildings on a single site, including the main station building which houses administrative offices, storage and training areas, a detention center, a multi-vehicle high security sally port and an exercise and locker room area. The station also includes a canine facility and a 1,600 square foot maintenance building for agent vehicles, ATVs and armored vehicles. Additionally, there is a fueling station, wash building and helicopter pad.
More than 50 local and regional integrators and dealers responded to the RFP, developed by the Army Corps of Engineers who took the lead on the job, which included design/builds for both hard specified video surveillance systems and open access control systems. NAV’s challenge was to ensure their proposal offered supplementary value for the client in addition to addressing the project requirements.
NAV was awarded the contract based on their extensive experience in designing and building enterprise-level video surveillance and security systems. They were also able to leverage their in-house expertise and vendor partnerships with Panasonic, DSX and Aiphone to the advantage of the client because of their in-depth knowledge of the product and how and where it would best be utilized. NAV’s proposal included the hard-specified Panasonic IP video surveillance system, consisting of 135 IP cameras, a virtual matrix and Panasonic network recorders to record and archive the video. A DSX access control system was selected for the more than 85 doors because of the client’s previous use and experience with the product. More than 50 Aiphone intercom systems were built into the design for communication among the buildings and remote gates. NAV was able to fully integrate these three systems to deliver seamless interoperability for Wellton. More than 240 hours of training led by NAV’s training coordinator included instruction, videos and detailed manuals on setup, programming and maintenance, adding even more value to the deployment. Having written the original RFP, the Army Corps of Engineers worked with NAV to maintain strict quality control throughout the install.
