To better serve a growing population and keep emergency response times low, the Poulsbo Fire Department recently undertook a project to deliver a new fire station on 19145 Viking Avenue NW in Poulsbo, WA. The new station, Fire Station 76, opened its doors on November 22, 2025.

Station 76 is the Fire Department’s fifth station. It was designed by Carletti Architects and built by TRICO Companies. At 6,700 SF, facility features three apparatus bays, living and support space for up to four on-duty firefighters, offices, and more. Located on the west side of Liberty Bay, Station 76 enhances coverage throughout western Poulsbo, as well as Scandia and Keyport. By reducing reliance on other stations for emergency calls in this area, it also improves reliability and response times for communities throughout Kitsap County.

Hill International served as the Fire Department’s progressive design-build (PDB) advisor from planning through handover. Our team was responsible for managing the Washington State PDB approval process.

According to Hill’s First Vice President and Area Manager for the Pacific Northwest Region Tracy Wiyrick, PDB can provide the flexibility to address site and operational challenges while maintaining cost certainty. “The flexibility comes from early collaboration between owners, designers, and builders, enabling teams to address challenges before construction begins,” she explains. “Helping ensure that the team was making the most of early collaboration opportunities was a crucial part of our role.”

PDB allowed the team to overcome numerous challenges on the Station 76 project. For example, residents and neighbors expressed concerns about protecting a creek running behind the property. So, early in the project, Hill worked with the PDB team and city planners to add a dispersion system to the project scope. By planning and integrating a system to direct stormwater away from the creek, the project team preserved an important natural resource and habitat space while meeting regulatory requirements, confirming community support for the new station, and keeping the project on track to meet the Fire Department’s other goals.

“That sort of problem solving characterized the project,” says Tracy. With PDB, she goes on, the Poulsbo Fire Department’s project team regularly integrated long-term operational needs with stakeholder expectations, budget constraints, schedule objectives, and regulatory requirements to overcome challenges in a timely way and deliver a high-quality facility that enhances the Fire Department’s life-saving emergency services at the best value for taxpayers.

“It makes you proud to work on a facility like this, because it’s easy to see the impact this is going to have on the community,” she concludes.

Learn more about Hill International’s work on PDB and other alternative delivery projects around the world at www.hillintl.com. To speak with Tracy about your own alternative delivery needs, reach out to [email protected].