Arrested development
Precast panels become cost-efficient choice for new Fayetteville prison

By George Waldon

County jail construction has become a profitable niche for Smith-Doyle Contractors Inc. of Cordova, Tenn., and the $20.5 million Washington County Correctional Facility in Fayetteville, Ark., is shaping up to be one of its showcase projects.

Hired as the construction manager on a negotiated cost-plus contract, Smith-Doyle started off on a roll when it brought the subcontractor bids $3.5 million under budget.

The savings were largely the result of precast concrete wall panels and columns produced by Prestressed Casting Co. of Springfield, Mo. Nearly 400 pieces of PCC's handiwork are used in the project. The biggest concrete panels were 34 ft. long by 12 ft. high, with the smallest nearly half that size.

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The Washington County job is the first time Smith-Doyle used the material to build a jail.

"We had never entertained the idea of precast because we thought it would be more expensive," Don Abernathy, project manager, said. "But the cost came in under budget compared to the block work, so it was a no-brainer."

The use of precast concrete walls also eased the demand for masons on the project. In the building-boom economy of northwest Arkansas, locating and scheduling available masons can be a tricky proposition.

"We're still having trouble getting masons up here for what little masonry work we have," Abernathy said.

The savings generated by the precast concrete paid for a 20,000-sq.-ft. addition to the administration building, half of which is shell space for future use, and a free-standing, 11,000-sq.-ft. pre-engineered metal building to house work release inmates.

John Gibson, assistant county administrator, said the price tag of the new jail complex caused some grumbling among constituents, even with the savings.

"People talk about how expensive jails are to build," Gibson said. "The amount of money is not spent on amenities. It's spent on hard, secure concrete walls and detention equipment to keep prisoners."

Two, octagon-shaped jail pods will have a 716-bed capacity for inmates. The largest of the two is designated as Pod B. It consists of three levels, with 56,874 sq. ft. under roof.

Pod A, a single-story, 31,517-sq.-ft. jail, will house the most serious offenders.

Ground was broken on the 17-acre development in September 2002. Work remains on track for a scheduled completion date of Nov. 30. In the future, four additional jail pods could be built on adjoining land, each with a capacity of 230 inmates.

Each of the pods under construction contains two suicide watch areas and a padded cell. At the center of each eight-sided structure is a control room, which will be loaded with high-tech security equipment and laid out to provide a 360-degree field of view.

The control rooms are linked individually to the main control room in the administration building. The main control room also is hooked into a system of video cameras throughout the complex and microwave motion sensors around the perimeter.

The jail pods will feature video visitation areas where a 13-in. monitor is linked by Web cams to small rooms in the nearby administration building, which are also equipped with viewing screens and cameras.

The high-tech set-up helps cut down on inmates receiving contraband and reduces staff needed to escort prisoners and supervise visits. An arraignment room in the administration building is similarly equipped for remote access to a judge as well as space for in-person judicial appearances.

Both pods will be connected by a Y-shaped corridor to the 40,993-sq.-ft. administration building. Most of the structure - 21,163 sq. ft. - will be devoted to the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

The remaining 19,830 sq. ft. is detention-related space that includes kitchen, cafeteria, laundry, medical facility and intake area for prisoners.

A security wall with special doors separates the office and detention space within the administration building, which sports conventional steel beams and load-bearing precast concrete walls.

The Sally Port doors in the facility require entry through a door into an anteroom and another door. The first door must shut and lock before the second one will open.

The facility augments a 240-bed jail built in 1988, which is landlocked and maxed out.

"Had we gone in there and bought more land (near the existing jail), it would've cost $1 million in land alone," Gibson said. No major surprises have cropped up on the development, so far. The soil on the jail site, part of a 77-acre parcel owned by the county, did require a minimum of 3 ft. excavation below the footprint of each of the buildings.

The expansive clay was replaced with engineered fill material to provide a more stable base. The foundations are tied into 430 drilled piers sunk 12-14 ft. to reach solid shale.

SpiritArchitecture Group LLC of Memphis, the project designer, has teamed up with Smith-Doyle on other county jail projects including Miller County, Ark. and Johnson County, Tenn.

"This was a very good experience working with Prestressed Casting Co. as well as the quality of the work," said Marshal Wiles, project manager for SpiritArchitecture Group.

"The challenging part was the overall coordination, planning to block out openings for duct work, plumbing, electrical and security electronics."

Useful Resources

For more about precast concrete construction, go to: http://www.precast.org/