FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, October 8, 2018 — The City of Bridgeport, Connecticut, has contracted Federal Engineering, Inc. (FE) to assess their existing radio system and determine the best approach to meet the future needs of its first responders.

Mr. Scott Appleby, CEM, Director of the Office of Emergency Management & Homeland Security/Emergency Communications, indicated: “The City of Bridgeport is the largest municipality in the State with approximately 16 square miles and a population of 145,000. Bridgeport operates a digital VHF radio system which provides service to the Bridgeport Police Department (PD) and the Bridgeport Fire Department (FD). The Department of Public Works, Recreation, and Emergency Management (ECC) also operate on this system. The Department of Public Facilities, Parks Department, American Medical Response, and the Bridgeport School System (BOE) operate on separate systems.”

Mr. Appleby continued: “The current land mobile radio system for the city was purchased in 2009. It was installed and became operational in early 2010. The City of Bridgeport requires technical services from a qualified consulting team to conduct a review of the existing systems, to evaluate the future LMR needs of each City department with particular attention to first responders’ needs, and to recommend a course of action to meet those needs. A selection committee reviewed proposals and ultimately chose a firm that could provide a full range of services and support the city’s needs from initial planning through implementation support should we decide to move forward with upgrades. After a thorough evaluation of proposals, Federal Engineering was selected.”

Mr. Travis LePage, FE Director, provided a vignette of the Bridgeport project: “FE will become familiar with the City’s existing voice radio system infrastructure, including the site controllers, base stations, antennas, transmission lines, transmitter combiners, receiver multi‐couplers, and microwave site connectivity. FE will determine if the infrastructure is operating as designed. FE will also review the existing radio system coverage to assess how well the portable in‐building coverage provided by the system meets user requirements.”

FE will then complete the following:

• Assess user needs
• Conduct a comprehensive review of the existing radio system
• Assess the life cycle costs of the present radio system compared to the alignment with the State infrastructure
• Evaluate the future radio communications infrastructure, radio equipment needs, and operational capabilities of the City’s FD, PD, BOE, and ECC
• Generate a recommendations report with supporting documentation
• Should the City desire, FE is available to assist with the supervision of construction of any infrastructure improvement based upon the recommendations.