JE Dunn, Nabholz tapped for proposed $825M Arkansas prison

Nabholz Building and JE Dunn have been tapped to construct a proposed $825 million, 3,000-bed jail in Franklin County, Arkansas, that may be one of many largest public investments in current state historical past.

The Arkansas Board of Corrections voted to approve the contracting staff made up of Conway, Arkansas-headquartered Nabholz and Kansas Metropolis, Missouri-based JE Dunn on Thursday. 

The objective of the undertaking is to address prison overcrowding on the state in addition to county degree, in accordance with the undertaking web site. It will home minimum- to maximum-security inmates. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders introduced the acquisition of the 815-acre property within the Vesta neighborhood simply exterior of Charleston to host the jail in October 2024.

Nonetheless, the state has not but secured funding for the undertaking, and a bill to appropriate up to $750 million for the jail failed a number of instances within the Arkansas State Senate earlier this yr, in accordance with 40/29 Information. Many Franklin County residents have pushed again on the plans, citing inadequate infrastructure, difficult topography, a scarcity of employees and concern of declining property values within the space.

Opponents have questioned the Board of Corrections’ $825 million price ticket estimate. In March, an modification to a failed appropriations invoice would have established a restricted reserve fund allocating $1 billion for the project, 5 Information On-line reported, whereas Gravel & Grit, a nonprofit created to oppose the undertaking, pegs the whole value at $1.5 billion, not together with infrastructure upgrades.

Nonetheless, the Corrections Board is utilizing $75 million that had beforehand been appropriated for prison construction to maneuver the method ahead, the Arkansas Advocate reported Could 15. 

In October 2024 the Corrections Board additionally authorised a $16.5 million contract with Sacramento, California-based Vanir Building Administration to supervise the undertaking, and picked Omaha, Nebraska-headquartered HDR and Cromwell Architects Engineers of Little Rock, Arkansas, for the design in April.

For now, the state is conducting additional environmental research on the jail web site, in accordance with the undertaking web site. A cultural resource study is also likely to be undertaken to search for cultural and historic artifacts after members of the Chickamauga Nation lately warned that ancestors may very well be buried there, Axios reported final week.