Construction on County jail going strong
Facility will start housing inmates in January 2019
Despite the extreme hot weather during the last few months, construction on the South County Detention Facility is still going strong.
“It is flying,” said Lt. Cory Jones, the sheriff’s liaison for the South County Detention Facility project, which is located on West Scranton Avenue. “They [construction workers] are absolutely flying.”
Currently, Jones said about 65 construction workers are working on the facility.
Jones said the detention project, which costs roughly $68 million, is broken down into three units. He said the exterior of the facility is completely up on both units 1 and 2, which he said will serve as housing units.
Jones noted that workers are now beginning interior upgrades on those units such as jail cells, electrical and plumbing.
As far as the jail cells, Jones said workers are about a third of the way through.
In unit 1, Jones said workers have three quarters of the bottom floor done.
“We still have one housing part of unit one that is being used as storage for all of the other cells so they still have that whole unit to do,” Jones added.
In terms of the second floor, Jones said workers are currently installing the deck. He said workers have about half of the floor cells installed.
Once the project is finished, Jones said the facility will be able to house more than 500 county inmates.
Jones said workers are also working on unit 3 of the detention facility, which he said will house the facility’s intake, a bakery and a medical and kitchen area. Jones said workers will finish section four, which he said will house the facility’s administrative area, including a lobby and offices, by the end of the month. He said it is
located at the southeast corner of the facility.
“The whole exterior will be up and everything will be interior at that point,” Jones said.
Scott Murphy, the senior construction manager for Vanir Construction Management, the company overseeing the management of the project, said work on the thermal energy storage tank is also moving along smoothly.
Jones said the thermal storage tank has the potential to reduce the facility’s electricity cost by anywhere from 30 to 50 percent.
Murphy said the tank goes up approximately
45 feet. He said workers have started installing the first of four rims on the tank so far.
“That process is two weeks into production,” Murphy said.
Murphy added that it will be about another four months to complete the installation of all four rims.
“It is a long process,” he said. Once completed, Jones said the county will charge the million gallon tank with chilled water at night, when energy is at its cheapest, and draw from it during the day, when energy is at its premium, to cool the facility
in the summer. Jones said a similar tank is used at the county’s main jail and courthouse.
Despite a few minor challenges along the way, Jones said the facility is still on track to be completed by June of next year. After that date, Jones noted that the county will have approximately six months to work through any warranty problems and ensure that the overall operation is fully up and running.
If everything goes as planned, Jones said the county will start housing and opening booking in January 2019.
“Everything is going great, I am really pleased with the overall speed of the project,” Jones said, adding that he is looking forward to “getting it done and getting it open.”