Up and Out in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania’s history evokes complex, colorful images. The state’s role during the Civil and Revolutionary Wars forever changed the face of the nation. The Battle of Gettysburg, the miserable plight of Gen. George Washington’s troops in Valley Forge, the Liberty Bell at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall and other patriotic impressions come to mind.
The state’s history also recalls tragedies such as the Scofield Mine disaster, the incident at Three Mile Island and the desolation of Lake Erie’s pollution.
Much of the nation’s industrial history is also based in Pennsylvania, which, deservedly, is seen as the heart of the rust-belt. During the world wars, the state’s mills and factories provided a large part of the war materials for the nation. The steel industry furnished the rails for the country’s railways, the structural material for building modern cities and the weaponry for national defense. The state’s industrial resources made it “the Arsenal of America.”
While preserving its rich history, the state is also moving steadily toward the future by embracing revolutionary information-age technology. Pennsylvania is making history as a leader in cutting-edge communications. With its public safety radio project, the state is designing and installing one of the country’s first statewide all-digital radio communications systems.
A grand-scale project What started out in 1980 as three studies and an intern project on improving wireless communications in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has evolved into a massive $179 million statewide project spanning two decades, requiring endless legislation and involving almost every existing state agency. As a result of this early research, a report called “Integrated Communications” was prepared in June 1980 by the Department of General Services to facilitate study of interagency wireless communications.
>From these rather basic beginnings, this enterprise has taken on a life of >its own. The Pennsylvania Public Safety Radio Project has logged more than >8,500 people hours in evaluation, enlisted the participation of 23 state >entities and gained unanimous support from the major state agencies. When >completed, the new digital system will have the potential of providing >reliable interagency communications throughout the 67 counties that make >up the Commonwealth. Coverage, which will include 2,569 townships, >boroughs and cities, will connect more than 2,600 paid and volunteer fire >departments, nearly 1,500 EMS organizations and 1,200 individual police >departments. Initially, the system will support about 25,000 radios, but >as state participation grows, that number could reach 50,000.
Although this project has required a lot of cooperative work by a variety of state groups, interagency unity has not always been the norm. “The problem with radio, like so many technologies, is that it’s hard to explain to the general audience,” said Don Appleby, the state’s project director. “Back in the ’80s, it was more unusual to look at this as a multigroup project. It was more typical to have individual ‘fiefdoms’ that operated separately.”
Appleby estimates that it was not until 1993 when this plan for improving public safety communications gained the attention of the Commonwealth to the point that it became a true “statewide” effort. “It became apparent that the state police system needed to be changed out.” The project picked up speed when the outgoing governing administration handed it over to the incoming administration, along with funding estimates of around $400 million.
Newly elected Gov. Tom Ridge assigned the project to Tom Paese, Secretary of Administration, who, Appleby said, promptly began an in-depth focus on exactly how it would be funded. “Up to that point there was no real funding, only estimates. You can spend decades planning, but if you don’t have funding commitments and executive sponsorship, your planning is for naught,” Appleby said.
Gov. Ridge launched a four-year project in 1996 to modernize and unify the state agencies’ two-way radio communications systems. According to reports from the project office, when the system is completed in 2001, it will tie Commonwealth agencies and other participants into a highly reliable, high-capacity radio network. The new network will allow state agencies to share resources, allowing these entities to respond to emergencies in a more efficient coordinated effort.
Around the same time, the project reached several important milestones. After the legislature approved the capital budget, including the $179 million item for the statewide radio network, RFPs were issued to serve the Commonwealth public safety needs through the year 2015. Replacement began on some of the obsolete radio equipment, and a centralized management structure was established to facilitate the radio project’s planning and operations. Tower sites were leased to private telecommunications companies. In December of 1996, Act 148, signed by Gov. Ridge, definitely provided the $170 million budgeted for the project. These steps, however, represent just a small part of this tremendous statewide effort.
Functional, but inadequate Providing an integrated public safety communications for the state’s approximately 2,700 EMS organizations and police departments is clearly a daunting task. With the Public Safety Emergency Telephone Act of 1990, much of the burden of this task has fallen on the county 9-1-1 systems.
Although historically, Penn-sylvania’s intra-county communications have been adequate, inter-county communications have not. Interoper-ability among the state’s many existing communications system is not dependable, said Appleby. “These systems can’t talk. EMS can be on one side of the river and the police on the other, and they can’t talk to each other.”
At present, poor, or non-existent- communications is the norm among the 22 state agencies. Three frequency bands and a variety of manufacturers’ systems limit interoperability. Some portions of the systems have been updated; most are 25 years old. The daily operational challenges include equipment failure, difficulty in replacing antiquated equipment and high operational costs. According to state reports, the Commonwealth maintains more than 550 radio towers at 480 locations. Several state agencies maintain sites within a mile of each other.
Fortunately, the statewide radio project will alleviate these problems. The project’s mission addresses the following points: * Procure, develop and commission a statewide radio voice and data network for all Commonwealth agencies. * Unify existing fragmented wireless networks to reduce duplicate costs. * Increase the efficiency of agency operations. * Share wireless systems and digital support networks. * As Gov. Ridge explained the current situation in Pennsylvania:
“Fire, police and medical response teams often identify a lack of coordinated communications as their greatest frustration in helping to protect public lives and property. Emergency personnel who can’t quickly and easily communicate with one another are hampered in their ability to safeguard the public and also place their own lives in jeopardy. This is an intolerable situation that we are working to avoid in Pennsylvania . In the past, state agencies used incompatible radio equipment, complicating their ability to talk with each other. This new radio system, using state-of-the-art digital technology, will make it much easier for state agencies to communicate with their own field workers and with one another.”
Gov. Ridge said that extra capacity will be made available to local governments wherever possible, allowing local emergency response personnel to use the most modern communications technology while holding down expenses. “Through a variety of technology initiatives overseen by the Office for Information Technology, we’re improving the way state government manages the people’ business,” Ridge said.
The technology team In the 18 months since the project’s procurement, Appleby estimates that about 20 state employees have spent more than 8,500 work hours in the evaluation process. He added that RCC Consultants has probably spent twice as many hours. RCC Consultants, which was awarded the systems engineering contract (worth around $16 million) in July 1997, has assigned a 15-person staff to the statewide project, with at least half of these individuals involved primarily on a full-time basis, Appleby said.
As for the vendors, who signed “not-to-exceed” contracts, hours spent on the state project will continue to climb in the months ahead. Other major vendors include M/A-Com, a division of AMP Wireless Systems, which holds the contract for the system’s digital radio equipment. Appleby estimates M/A-Com’s contract, which covers only infrastructure, is worth a minimum of $75 million. The contract for supplying and installing the microwave radio system, valued at about $33 million, Appleby said, was awarded to Alcatel USA. This system will interconnect radio towers and cell sites.
Each state agency will contract directly with the vendor for other system components, such as radios, control stations and consoles. “This gives the purchasing agency more flexibility,” Appleby said.
Radio tower site development, which includes supply and installation of towers, equipment shelters and emergency power generator, has been assigned to two companies. The state is still under contract negotiations with MFS Technologies. Rohn Construction, a division of Rohn Industries, has completed the towers built so far. MFS Technologies will be responsible for the state’s two most western regions while Rohn handles site development for the state’s other four geographic areas, which makes up for about two-thirds of the state’s coverage.
“The Commonwealth has estimated that by December 2000, 150 sites will need to be built and on-air in Rohn’s region,” said David Ramsay, manager, Rohn Construction and Pennsylvania project administrator. “The towers, which will range from 180 feet to 330 feet [tall], will be self-supporting and guyed.”
To better facilitate its commitment to the state project, Rohn established an office in Harrisburg staffed with construction managers and engineers. “We estimate that Rohn will expend 30,000 man hours on this project in the next 12 months,” Ramsay said.
The statistics (see “Tower Facts & Figures,” on page 33) represented only by Rohn’s portion of the state project are staggering. To meet the state’s deadline, Ramsay estimates that during the year the Rohn project team will install 38,800 feet of tower-or roughly 7.4 miles of towers. Rohn also will supply three-legged pipe towers, which combined, represent about 116,400 feet of pipe. The total estimated weight of all steel needed to build out the state in Rohn’s territory is 3,500 tons. Ramsay also expects the company to purchase roughly $35 million worth of engineering, construction and materials to meet the project demands.
Rohn has dedicated itself to the Pennsylvania project through aggressive tower design and pricing, Ramsay said. “The state has a strict budget by which they must complete the statewide buildout. Rohn consistently refines its tower design to maximize loading while keeping the customer’s cost down. Additionally, we have pursued the best means available to manage site construction, while controlling labor costs. The result, we believe, is the best communications infrastructure available, with field services to ensure timely installation with no cost overruns.”
System advantages From the towers under construction to the radios that will eventually be in the hands of public safety employees, this complete system brings a wealth of improvement and benefits to the state and its citizens. Well-planned sharing of available resources is at the heart of these benefits.
The project’s resources include the 550 tower sites. Some are leased to other users, an arrangement that can provide a significant source of income. Additionally, according to state reports, shared use of tower sites will decrease the total number of sites used, thereby potentially reducing the expanding network’s impact on the environment.
“On a typical public safety system,” Appleby said, “the gold standard is coverage.” With the radio project’s low-cost, cellular approach of using a large number of smaller towers, not only is the state meeting this standard, but it is doing so more cost-effectively, he added. “Your site count goes up, but your cost drops dramatically.”
The radio towers will be shared with county 9-1-1 systems, saving additional time and money for participants. The network, comprised of digital microwave and fiber-optic links, will transport information between the tower sites for the radio network. According to the project’s descriptions, the microwave system features some built-in excess capacity, which can be used by local government to reduce operating costs and increase reliability.
Flexible architecture will allow local jurisdictions to build out a portion of the system to meet individualized requirements. For example, a local police station could add in-building portable coverage without having to build a separate, stand-alone radio system.
Counties can use state funds to directly purchase radios for emergency workers rather than recreate 67 stand-alone systems that don’t “talk” to each other. Voluntary participation also allows counties to pick and choose among the various elements of the state system. For example, a county might choose to keep its own alert and dispatch radio channels, but rely on the state system for mobile data and AVL applications.
Appleby said that another advantage of the statewide system is that its architecture features a voice-over-IP network. “This is a major mindset difference for the radio folks who will need to learn more about the network. The radio folks need to learn about IP, and IP will need to learn more about radio.” Appleby expects this architectural change to have ramifications for the public safety community.
As the Commonwealth moves steadily toward its completion date, Appleby said, the project team continues to face such challenges as site acquisition, delivery of hardware and, the big one, tower placement. “FCC license requirements state the system should be on the air by December 2000, and we’re doing everything possible to meet that [deadline]. Once testing is done, transmission should begin in April 2001.”
Pennsylvania’s territory: About 45,000 square miles Population: 12 million Municipalities: More than 2,500 Public safety entities (police, fire, EMS and others): 4,700 State’s project participants: 23 entities, including state agencies, commissions, authorities and one utility Number of radios: 25,000 initially, with a potential of 50,000 radio units Number of users: Possibly 120,000-150,000 users over the life of the system Number of state’s time investment to-date: In the 18 months since beginning of procurement, about 8,500 personnel hours have been spent on evaluation alone.
(Information provided by Don Appleby, Pennsylvania’s project director.)
Combined length of towers: 38,000 feet, or roughly 7.4 miles of towers Amount of pipe: 116,400 feet of pipe Weight of steel: 3,500 tons Number of personnel hours: 30,000 Cost of engineering, construction and materials: Roughly $35 million Number of sites: 150
(These estimates, provided by Rohn, represent the approximate statistics related to its responsibilities of Pennsylvania’s state radio project during the year 2000.)