Big Business

Prison construction booms across South Central region

By Angelle Bergeron

Contractors in the South Central region know that prison construction is big business. Following is a sampling of some projects currently under way that mean economic development for the counties in which they are being built as well as bustling business for the contractors.

Special Needs Unit, Ouachita Regional Corrections

The Arkansas Department of Corrections of Pine Bluff is building a 339,442-sq-ft precast concrete addition to the existing Ouachita River Correctional Unit in Malvern. By using inmate labor, the department is able to deliver the project, which had a 2001 private sector budget of $64 million, for about $40 million, says David Cruseturner, assistant director - Construction & Maintenance Division.

The highly skilled inmates are supervised by civilian employees, and the inmates “always show up for work,” Cruseturner says.

The entire, three-phase project will eventually house 854 special-needs inmates. Phase one includes construction of mental health housing, expansion of dining room and kitchen facilities, addition of a laundry, hospital, intake area and control centers. Phase one is scheduled for completion in February 2009.

The location of the existing facility on American Indian land posed the biggest obstacle to the project. Before ground was broken, the ADC spent more than $230,000 to ensure the expansion would preserve and protect American Indian history, Cruseturner says.

The procurement of materials through the state’s bid process has also been an obstacle because contractors are trying to keep within a 2001 budget with ever-spiraling costs, Cruseturner says.

Both to offset some of that cost and expedite construction, the ADC has already purchased modular units that will be used in phase three of the project.

New Livingston Parish Jail

Woodrow Wilson Construction Co Inc. of Baton Rouge will turn over a new $16.4 million jail to Livingston Parish in March. Built on five acres, the jail includes four buildings.

“All the buildings are premanufactured metal buildings on poured-in-place concrete,” says Jason Catlin, project manager. “All the walls are concrete masonry units reinforced with concrete and rebar.”

The project isn’t a departure from what Woodrow Wilson normally performs-public projects like schools, libraries and prisons. This is the second project for Catlin, who says the main obstacle is getting the subcontractors to remain on schedule.

“It is a minimum security facility,” Catlin says. “Being a totally new facility that was outside the old prison, we did not have to do security screening of employees.”

The contractor is currently putting finishing touches on the project, such as anchoring down prison furniture.

Adams County Prison

While the rest of the country continues to lament a workforce shortage, Flintco Inc. of Memphis is enjoying a bounty of labor in Adams County, Miss.

Flintco is working on the $105 million expansion of the Adams County Prison. By May the contractor expects to be at peak construction of the 18-month project, requiring as many as 450 workers.

“We’re actually turning labor away,” says Bobby Smith, project manager. The local economy has been depressed since a paper mill closed down a few years ago, and the prison was touted as an economic development vehicle, Smith says.

Owner Corrections Corp. of America of Nashville, which owns and operates 65 other facilities nationwide, engaged in a public-private effort with the local government to capture funding streams from GoZone legislation and for installation of new water and sewer lines.

“We were able to access public funding, which not only helped to secure our ability to build there but will also have long-term benefits for the community to build in that area,” says Steve Owen, director of marketing for CCA.

Flintco’s contract includes all site prep, underground utilities and construction of 15 different buildings to support the prison’s expansion from a 1,500-bed to a 2,300-bed facility. To meet the tight time frame, Flintco is using premanufactured concrete cells from Rotondo Weirich of Lederach, Pa.

“It is a quicker operation,” Smith says. “The cells will be shipped while we’re working on the foundation slabs.”

The biggest challenge was completing all of the slabs during what is typically a rainy season, Smith says. By December, Flintco had completed about 95% of the site prep and poured all the foundations and slabs for buildings. “If the man upstairs will keep blessing us with good weather then this will be a good project,” Smith says.

That lack of rain underscores the logic behind CCA’s decision to install its first grey water system at the new facility.

“It takes shower water, puts it through a filter system, temporarily stores it and gets piped to toilets for re-use,” says Buddy Johns, CCA’s senior director of project development. “It represents about 25% savings of overall water usage.”

The investment requires a 42-month return on cost, but the system will last for the lifetime of the building, Johns says.

“When you have 1,500 inmates using water 24 hours a day, that is a lot of water,” Johns adds.

Tallahatchie County Detention Facility

CCA is also the owner and operator of the Tallahatchie County Detention Facility. Bell & Associates of Brentwood, Tenn., is performing a $52 million expansion to that facility.

The Tallahatchie expansion began in earnest in November and will be completed by the third quarter of this year. One of the reasons the project is paced so quickly is because CCA is managing it for the state.

“With government, they have all the bureaucracy of bidding out new construction, which means it can take longer and cost a lot more,” director of marketing Owen says. “CCA already has relationships with engineers, architects and contractors like Bell & Associates, so we can quickly go out and get it done within two years. With the government, it could take several years.”

To keep pace with the schedule, Bell & Associates is using Tindall precast modular cells for housing. Additionally, the expansion for the dormitory and kitchen areas are primarily precast concrete wall panels and roof by Metromont Corp. of Greenville, S.C., Owen says. The contractor is also using pre-engineered steel structures by General Steel Corp. for other buildings onsite.

“Premanufactured has a lot to do with quality control, as well as the time factor,” Owen says.

Bell & Associates has another project in Montgomery, Ala. By fall, the contractor will deliver the $46.4 million expansion to the Montgomery County Detention Facility. Bell’s contract includes construction of a four-story, 189,782-sq-ft new building, a bridge that will connect the structure to the existing building and renovations to the kitchen area in the basement of the existing jail. The new structure will provide an additional 696 beds, increasing current capacity to 1,001 beds.

The structure is primarily concrete, with some reinforced concrete in key areas. There also are block partitions and modular steel-paneled cells that are welded together and finished with concrete slab ceilings and floors.

Although the project required some coordination with the existing jail for security purposes, it is moving along smoothly, says Randy Brent, vice president and partner of Bell & Associates.

“We not only have an experienced leadership team on this project, but also we have an exceptional group of subcontractors who understand the correctional industry,” he says.