Balfour Beatty Construction Awarded Design-build Contract for New Correctional Facility for Kern County

Kern County has selected Balfour Beatty Construction to design and construct a new $100.5 million addition to the Kern County Justice Facility located in Bakersfield, Calif. The 215,000-square-foot facility is expected to create 350 to 400 jobs for the local community, including a contractual target goal to subcontract 25 percent of design and construction services to local businesses with 35 percent of the labor supplied by local workers. The project team will leverage lean construction practices and the latest technologies to efficiently deliver the facility.

The 24-plus acre project site is part of the larger County-owned Lerdo Detention Facility site. The project scope includes the design and construction of housing and support facilities for 822 inmates, including a central plant for heating and cooling. Project site development also includes security fencing, utility systems, new electrical service and distribution systems, pedestrian walkways, staff and visitor parking, roadway realignment, a new entry guard house, landscaping, and site lighting.

The new housing building will consist of three medium-security housing units with approximately 100 cells each, and one maximum security mental health/special housing unit with approximately 104 cells, four housing control rooms, attorney visiting booths, along with treatment, recreation, administrative, and educational/vocational program space. The support building will provide space for healthcare, custody, video visitation, and administrative and support services. The standalone central plant will provide heating, cooling, and electrical services for the new facility, and be comprised of two chillers, a cooling tower, and three boilers.

Design innovations include clusters of smaller-scale housing units that are grouped according to detention levels, and support the varying security classifications and programmatic needs of the inmate population. Additional features include low-maintenance finishes, energy efficient LED light fixtures, and the use of water-saving landscaping elements. The County also plans to enroll the project in PG&E’s “Savings by Design” program which offers incentives to owners of construction projects that exceed California’s Title 24 energy efficiency standards.

The design-build team is comprised of Balfour Beatty Construction (general contractor), HOK Architects (project architect), Kitchell (construction manager), and DLR Architects, which created the project’s initial set of conceptual drawings. As an integrated design-build team, the companies will collaborate throughout the project to meet the County’s goal of building a facility that is safe and secure for inmates, staff, and the public, in addition to delivering it on time and on budget.

“We look forward to developing a highly interactive client-project team relationship in order to deliver the most innovative, cost- and energy-effective solutions for Kern County and the Sheriff’s department,” said Brian Cahill, Southwest Division President of Balfour Beatty Construction. “The cumulative experience of the entire design-build team includes over 350 major justice facilities, including our current work on three large prison projects in California – the award-winning San Diego County Women’s Detention Facility, the San Mateo County Jail, and the Riverside County, East County Detention Center. We are pleased for the opportunity to utilize our combined experience and expertise to help Kern County achieve its objectives.”

The project is scheduled to break ground in August 2015 with project completion anticipated by June 2017. This project includes California, AB900, Phase 2 funding in the amount of $100 million.

About Balfour Beatty Construction US

An industry leader for more than 80 years, Balfour Beatty Construction US provides general contracting, at-risk construction management, and design-build services for a wide variety of markets, serving clients in both the public and private sectors. The company is the U.S. subsidiary of London-based Balfour Beatty plc (LSE: BBY), a leading international infrastructure group that finances, develops, builds and maintains complex building programs focused on social and commercial buildings, power and utility systems, and transportation. Consistently ranked among the nation’s largest building contractors, Balfour Beatty Construction Services US has been cited as a Top 10 Domestic Building Contractor and Top 10 Green Builder by Engineering News-Record. To learn more, visit www.balfourbeattyus.com or look for BalfourBeattyUS on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.