Jan 25, 2022 4 min read

Construction on the new Fayette County Prison seems to be moving along nicely with the first cell blocks expected to be placed at the facility in February.

The new, 114,500-square-foot facility at 245 McClellandtown Road in Uniontown will replace the existing county jail, which was built in 1892 with additions in 1999.  The existing prison has faced multiple issues like overcrowding and deterioration in recent years. The new facility also is expected to have 170 cells with 300 beds with the potential for future expansion of an additional 68 cells and 132 beds. 

“We’re pretty much on schedule,” said Commissioner Vince Vicites. “Hopefully, the winter season won’t continue with a lot of snowfall. That could set us back slightly, But we are on schedule at this point.”

The new facility is scheduled to be completed by March 2023 on the former site of the U.S. Army Reserve Center, which sat vacant since the early 2000s. Demolition of the existing structure and preparation of the site for construction was completed in May 2021. 

The estimated $51 million project is being funded through the USDA’s low interest Community Facilities Direct Loan.

Concrete casting has been under way since the last week of November at Costabile Construction of Smock. The company currently has about 35 of the prefabricated cells molded and in various stages of completion. The first batch of 55 completed cell modules is expected to be delivered to the site on Feb. 14.

Dan Costabile, owner of the company, and Ron Jackson, general superintendent, recently led county officials through the casting site, as part of a mock-up review of what some of the completed inmate housing cells will look like.

“We’re supposed to be done casting the concrete at the beginning of April, so we should have all the pieces completely finished by that second week of April,” Jackson said. “We’ll come back for our second mobilization with the rest of the pieces after that.”  

On the day of the tour a fresh batch of concrete arrived and was poured into special molds to create two, two-cell modules.

Jackson said it takes about 20 people, divided into crews, to complete each two-cell housing piece. Concrete casting for two pieces containing four total cells is done each day; and each module can be completed in about five days.

“We have 132 pieces in total, which includes the 170 housing cells, but we’re also making the showers, triage and interview rooms,” he said. “We’ll finish them here, then transport them over to the prison site and stack them up like blocks.”

Vicites said he wasn’t able to make it to the site that day and his chief of staff went to represent his office. Vicites is pleased with the progress of the project.

“Everything’s going very smoothly,” he said. “We’re on top of things on a regular basis. We’ve cut costs everywhere we could. We’ve been very focused on this project. It’s our number one project in the county. We want to make sure it comes to a successful conclusion, on time and under budget.”

The project is one of great importance in Fayette County.

“It’s the largest public works project in Fayette County history,” Vicites explained. “We came in at (almost) $5 million under budget when the bids came in. We’ve had a few change orders, but we’re still $4 million under budget. We’re really bird-dogging this thing to make sure it goes right.” 

Cell block fabrication details have been included in the monthly progress reports provided to county officials by the Fayette County Prison Project construction managers, Site LogIQ of Oakmont. The latest report, released Jan. 12, shows other contractors will also mobilize to the site in the next few months.

According to the report’s Executive Summary, the project is on schedule, with material procurement under way for some contractors and pre-installation and coordination meetings are ongoing, “with a focus on quality and safety.” Construction site safety procedures have been implemented with no issues through December 2021, the report states. 

“We’re going to continue to monitor this,” Vicites said. “We meet continually with our construction manager and have regular contacts with the architects and engineers. We’re making sure things go right.”