BR port to bid out maritime security center
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The Port of Greater Baton Rouge’s board voted Thursday to give the director authority to solicit bids on its planned $4.5 million Maritime Security Operations Center.
The vote came after the Legislature approved $2 million in funding for the project, which also has $1 million in grants from the Office of Homeland Security, and funds from the port and other local sources.
Commissioner Larry Johnson, who made the motion and received unanimous approval to put the vote on the agenda, said it was important to get the project moving as quickly as possible because the weather tends to be dryer in the summer, which would mean fewer construction delays.
The three-story emergency command center will be an assembly point for command-and-control operations of various state, federal and local agencies involved in maritime emergency situations. It will also serve as dispatch facilities for all West Baton Rouge Parish firefighter and law enforcement agencies.
It will be built on the existing 8,000-square-foot, single-story original administrative building adjacent to the port’s current offices. The building was last home to the West Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce.
The two upper floors will serve as a security operations center for any area emergencies along the Mississippi River. It could house large groups of emergency personnel for extended periods.
The bottom floor will be West Baton Rouge’s dispatching operations, culminating several years’ worth of efforts to centralize those offices.
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