Walls constructed as 300-bed jail expansion gains momentum

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / News Editor for the Southern Standard

Jail expansion site superintendent Kenneth Bratcher stands on what will be an observation room once the building is finished. Behind him are the walls for some of the prisoner cells. (Charles W. Johnson photo)

Barreling into a new year, Warren County Jail expansion is moving along well, according to site superintendent Kenneth Bratcher, with the walls on the first floor nearly complete. The company Bratcher is employed with, Medical Construction Group, began the project in June of last year.

Bratcher said construction is not significantly behind schedule, adding the masonry crew had just received special door frames which would allow the workers to finish up the first floor.

The jail will contain over 300 beds and will be over 30,000 square feet in size, according to Bratcher. While Bratcher didn’t want to comment on a specific completion date, the original timetable had jail construction taking 24 months. That would have the jail being done in June, 2005.

Though the weather has presented somewhat of a problem since the project began, Bratcher said the building is moving along nicely and the crew hopes to make up some lost time.

“We’re doing real well, in spite of the weather and not having some of the materials that we need,” he said. “Maybe it won’t be long until we get into the second floor planks. I’d say if the weather stays fit, within two and a half weeks or maybe three weeks we’ll be ready for the second floor planks, and it’ll begin to look different altogether.”

Bratcher said the prisoner cells are beginning to take shape, noting there is still considerably more work to be done since each cell must have its own plumbing and lighting.

The observation rooms, raised sections within the facility, also lacked materials, but are now ready for finishing.

Since jail construction is so specialized and subject to stricter guidelines and specifications, some of the materials may require longer than usual lead times.

Various other areas within the jail are beginning to be framed up as well as the cells, including the kitchen and some of the security areas.

Around 20 laborers are employed at present working on the basic construction of the building, but this will increase as the structure moves into the finishing stages.

“There’ll be a lot more as time goes on,” Bratcher said. “Once we get the block up the other subcontractors come in and start doing your decks and that kind of stuff. And then your steel people have to come in and set the steel. We keep the plumbers, electricians and the masonry contractors on the job all the time, because they have to work together to get all their material into the walls.”

Bratcher noted that some have remarked on how long it is going to take to build the jail as opposed to how quickly, for example, the new Lowe’s has gone up.

“People don’t understand this is a jail and there’s so much more to this than there is to something like a Lowe’s,” he said. “We have so many things they don’t have to have. The jail is an animal all to itself, with all the security and all the technology.”

Bratcher said the security doors, for instance, have to be almost perfectly mounted, since they will have to open and close automatically. However long it takes, Bratcher said Medical Construction Group plans to make every effort to build a first-class facility.

“We’re trying hard to build the county what they’re supposed to get,” Bratcher said. “We may not get it as fast as they want it, but I’m going to try to give them what they’re supposed to have.”