By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

PALMER - Three firms are now competing for a design-build contract for the Point MacKenzie Correctional Center, a 1,536-bed medium security facility with a price tag that could stretch to $260 million.

The potential builders are Neeser Construction Inc., and the joint ventures Hunt/Lydig/Kiewitt Pacific Co. and Cornerstone/JE Dunn. All three firms have a strong history of working in Alaska.

Corrections Commissioner Joe Schmidt said May 21 that the contract would be awarded in mid-October, and the coming winter spent on the details of design, architecture, engineering, electric and plumbing the facility.

Russ Krafft, purchasing officer for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, said the prison, which is to be in use by 2012, is one of the largest vertical construction projects ever to take place in Alaska.

“It's like building an entire university campus at once,” he said.

The prison will be financed by the sale of borough revenue bonds. The Department of Corrections will lease the prison from the Mat-Su Borough, operate it and eventually own it when the lease-revenue bonds are repaid through 25 annual lease payments. Krafft said borough taxpayers are not paying for the project.

Neeser has done design-build work for 34 years in Alaska. KPB Architects, of Anchorage, has teamed up with Neeser on its bid. Among the subcontractors from Anchorage are Dowl Engineers, Superior Plumbing and Heating, Alcan Electrical and Coffman Engineers Inc.

Neeser is currently building the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center, a $93 million project in Downtown Anchorage. Past Neeser projects have included the $44 million Anchorage jail and the $37 million Alaska Psychiatric Institute.

HOK Architect, another major participant, has worked on the San Quentin Condemned Inmate Complex, a $156 million project.

Hunt/Lydig/Kiewitt Pacific Co. is a joint venture headquartered in Phoenix. Kiewitt Pacific has done several large Alaska projects, including the $193 remodeling of Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and the $47 million Glenn/Parks highways interchange. The firm's subcontractors include PND Engineers, Earthscape, Golden and Associates and Design Alaska.

Cornerstone/JE Dunn will be headquartered in Anchorage. Cornerstone already has offices there, while JE Dunn is based in Kirkland, Wash. The lead designer is WH Pacific, a subsidiary of NANA Development Corp., based in Anchorage.

R&M Consultants Inc. is also in Anchorage, and Correctional Design Specialists is based in California. The firm's potential subcontractors who are based in the Valley may include Collins Construction, FE Contracting and Howdie Inc.

Borough officials said an unidentified member of that firm built the $171 million La Palma Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., the $115.6 million Jefferson City Correctional Center in Missouri, and a $200 prison in Muscat, Oman.

While the contractor is still undetermined, timber is already being cleared from the site, at the corner of Alsop and Point MacKenzie roads, about nine miles from the Port MacKenzie dock. Groundbreaking is expected in the spring of 2009.

The Mat-Su Borough, which will own the prison and lease it to the state, has posted a conceptual site plan on its Web site at www.matsugov.us

The project is expected to generate 600 to 700 construction jobs and 350 prison jobs.

Kevin Brew, a special assistant to Schmidt, said correction officers in the Anchorage and Mat-Su area start at $17.51 an hour and after a year that pay rises to $19.85 an hour. The officers, who work one week on, one week off, earn about $48,000 a year after five years, not including overtime, he said.

Training for the correction officer positions will be in Palmer. Applicants must be high school graduates at least 21 years old, and must pass criminal background and psychiatric evaluations, he said.

Corrections officials estimate the cost of incarcerating some 5,400 inmates in Alaska currently costs an average of $42,000 each a year. The total includes about 3,700 people in jails and prisons in Alaska, plus 850 Alaskans incarcerated in Arizona, and others in residential treatment centers and through electronic monitoring.

Dwayne Peeples, deputy commissioner of the Department of Corrections, said the agency projects about 250 more prisoners every year.

“We are trying to increase education, alcohol and substance abuse and apprentice programs to keep people from coming back,” he said.

A similar apprentice program in California significantly lowered the number of repeat offenders, he said.

A small percentage of these prisoners are involved in apprenticeship programs in various trades. Corrections officials hope to finalize with trade unions soon a deal that will allow inmates who are released to transition into union apprenticeship programs.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.