Swift Water and
Flood Training Facility

Project overview

Sage Engineering was responsible for the multidisciplinary design of the facility’s core training infrastructure, including the swift water channel, buildings, specialized training structures, and associated building and process systems. The one-of-a-kind facility was developed to provide realistic, controlled training environments for emergency personnel and first responders.

At the heart of the facility is a 600+ foot cast-in-place reinforced concrete swift water channel, powered by three 45,000 GPM axial-flow pumps delivering a combined 135,000 GPM. Sage provided structural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering for the facility, including the channel, watertight flow-control gates, embedded attachment systems, access platforms, and configurable training features used to simulate rapids, weirs, dams, chutes, submerged vehicles, and other flood-rescue conditions.

The facility also includes mock residential and commercial buildings, an urban flood simulator, mechanical service facilities, and a 45-foot steel rope-rescue tower with rappelling and high-line rescue anchors. These specialized features support training for building evacuations, vehicle rescues, utility emergencies, roof-access operations, and other complex flood and rescue scenarios.