Construction of new jail on schedule, officials say
By Steve Herring
Published in News on November 24, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Henry Garcia, left, and Rolando Mendez work on the foundation of the Carey A. Winders Detention Center on Friday afternoon. Most of the underground work has been completed, and walls will be going up soon.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
A construction crew works at the site of the Carey A. Winders Detention Center Friday after more than a day of rain slowed progress. This photo shows the view from one of two guard booths that will allow guards to see two areas at once. The detention center has three dormitory-style areas and one area divided into cells.
Construction of the $10 million Carey A. Winders Detention Center is on schedule, if not a little bit ahead, despite all of the recent wet weather.
"As far as on time, actually with all of the weather you would think we'd be behind, but those guys are pretty much on schedule right now," said Kendall Lee, Wayne County facilities director. "It might even be a tiny bit ahead of schedule. They have all of the footings dug and poured. They are actually laying blockwork right now. They are plumbing, running electrical conduits.
"They are actually putting a little steel frame up, but that is misleading. That is where the guards will be sitting. That is pretty much the guardhouses, and there is a little blockwork that has to be laid on top of it."
All of the blockwork is started and is high enough out of the ground just in case of more bad weather, Lee said.
"There are some of the walls today that are probably five- or six-foot high," he said. "This is kind of backward from normal construction because of the way that it is designed and is so big, but they actually lay the blocks first, then they come in and pour the floor because there is so much conduit and plumbing under the floor."
Once the blocks get up, probably all of the way up, the floor will be poured, he said.
"Then we will start putting the roof on it," Lee said. "How do you inspect that because a typical house, when you get the footing in, you get an inspection. You get a wall up, you get an inspection.
"Well, this is so chopped up the inspectors are there every day. Once they get to a certain point they will come look at just that section. Just because it is so big there is no way until you have all of the footings done or all of the electrical done to come and look at it."
A third party at the site test materials including the concrete, blocks and rebar, Lee said.
The 38,500-square-foot, single-story, 221-bed jail is being built on the county-owned former Masons department store property on North William Street.
In December, 2014 the county purchased another nearly four acres adjacent to the southern end of the site. The county paid $135,000 for the land owned by Bob Jackson.
In the original plan, the jail was positioned on the northern end of the Masons property near Stronach Avenue.
"We started off looking that way, and when we bought the other property the more we talked about it, we decided to flip it," County Manager George Wood said.
Distancing the facility from the convenience store at the corner of North William Street and Stronach Avenue played somewhat into that decision, Wood said.
"That decision was made a while back," he said. "It wasn't a last-minute thing. It was early in the process."
The county has been talking about a new jail since 2004.
A driving force has been chronic overcrowding in the current jail. The county is spending nearly $1 million a year to house inmates at other facilities.
Daniels & Daniels Construction Co. of Goldsboro was awarded the contract for the jail designed by Moseley Architects of Raleigh.
The county has set aside $10 million for the project.
The project is expected to be finished by November 2016.
It is being named in memory of Winders, who served as sheriff for nearly 20 years. Winders, 57, died unexpectedly in January 2014.
On July 17, nearly 200 people, including Winders' family and a large contingent of law enforcement attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the jail.
The jail is the first phase of a larger judicial center.
The plan includes construction of a larger jail behind the satellite jail.
Provisions have been made in the plan to provide for a secure connection between the two.
"It may be years before we do the next (phase) which is the big jail," Wood said. "We don't even have it designed. We have enough space set aside for it.
"We planned for it on the site but we have not laid it out. So we are not going to do more parking than we need for this one."