MURPHYSBORO — The Jackson County Board voted Monday to award a contract for construction of a 15,000 square-foot, two-story addition of the county jail and other projects to Murphysboro’s Fager-McGee Commercial Construction.
Fager-McGee’s bid of almost $3 million for projects including jail expansion, roof work and a courthouse elevator improvement was the lowest of five bids for the total combined project. Although the successful bid was rewritten to save money, the county’s use of partially federally subsidized bonds will fall almost $300,000 short of meeting expenses.
Sheriff Robert Burns said his office will make up the difference in its next two budget cycles, and he’s ready for construction to begin.
“It’s space we need at the jail,” Burns said. “I look forward to getting the project underway and getting it done as quickly as we can.”
People are also reading…
No timetable has been set for construction to begin. The jail expansion is expected to be finished in 2013.
Lt. Jeff Whitbeck said the urgency in getting the additional 64 beds comes down to revenue and space for increasing inmate populations. The beds are expected to generate more than $600,000 annually to be used to pay debt service on the bonds.
The county has already made one payment of more than $100,000 and a second of two yearly payments is due in June.
County officials originally hoped to have ground broken in October with an eye toward completion this year. The project was pushed back after initial bids came in well over what the county could afford to pay with bond money.
Some projects were split from the bonds to free up more money.
Part of the reason for higher costs was poor soil conditions where the addition will be built. Another reason was the modular construction method the county originally intended to use.
The addition will now be built using tradition masonry block construction on the jail’s west side.
Hurst-Roche Engineers Inc. architect Jackson Liong said a pier system will be used to shore up the foundation under the addition.
When the county put the projects up for bid it separated them into five packages. Fager-McGee’s bid for the combined project came in $17,000 less than its closest competitor, Evrard-Strang Construction of Marion.
The county could have split the projects individually, but Hurst-Roche recommended using one general contractor, although doing the work piecemeal would have saved the county $2,700.
dw.norris@thesouthern.com/618-351-5074
On Twitter: @DW_Norris_SI
