It took 16 months and $2.8 million to build.

Now Richmond’s new training center for emergency dispatchers is ready for use at 3516 N. Hopkins Road.

The new 4,300-square-foot addition, above, was dedicated May 30, bringing the total square footage of the building to 19,300. While primarily a center for training communications officers to field emergency calls, officials said the building will double as a command center during hurricanes and other disasters.

Left, dispatchers work in the building's existing operations center during an open house where tours showed the similar equipment set up in the new training center. Stephen M. Willoughby, director of emergency communications, called the new center “a welcome addition” that would enable his department “to provide the best training” for those seeking to become dispatchers and offer additional development and update programs for those who currently handle the 400,000 plus emergency calls that pour in each year.