County Approves Bids For Jail Expansion Architect, 35th Street Project

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The Tuscaloosa County Commission on Wednesday voted to move forward on bids for two different projects for the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office, including a $13 million expansion of the county jail and a new hub for the TCSO Patrol Division on 35th Street.

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TCSO Chief of Administration Loyd Baker first provided an update on the RFP process for the Tuscaloosa County Jail — an ambitious project that will include the addition of a 34,000-square-foot medical/psychiatric and minimum-security dormitory. Renovations to the jail on 26th Avenue in Tuscaloosa will also include new inmate worker housing units.

The process of seeking out an architect for the project began in late January, with the county receiving only one response from Montgomery-based JMR+H Architecture, PC. The firm specializes in building jails and emergency facilities, in addition to being the company responsible for the design of the modern day county jail in Tuscaloosa.

"[The Tuscaloosa County E911 building] was the last project I worked on with y'all," said JMR+H President Mike Rutland. "I actually worked on the original jail project a number of years ago ... That’s one of our specialties."

The other project mentioned saw the sheriff's office forced to return to the drawing board after the low-bidder on the 35th Street project backed out after misreading the needs and demands of the project.

Patch previously reported that the land on 35th Street was acquired by the county from the state Board of Education, before a plan was formed to relocate the TCSO Patrol Division from its current airport hanger location to the new site.

Site work on the project began last spring, with the metal building initially estimated to cost $1.2 million in all.

However, Baker explained to the Commission that the sheriff's office was left with no choice but to rebid the project after receiving one bid that came in well-below expectations.

Harrison Construction is the general contractor on the project, with Project Manager Will Kelly saying on Wednesday that the accepted bid from Civil Worx Construction came in the amount of $607,250 during the second round of bidding.

This presents significant cost-savings to the Commission, with the next runner up placing a bid of roughly $825,000.

"This one came in about $200,000 lower," Kelly said. "Some of that kind of came from the county doing the site work and doing most of the rough grading."

As for the egregiously-low bid that caused the entire process to start over, Kelly said he believed it had to do with the bond for the project.

"It was over $500,000 and they couldn’t bond the job," he said. "The original bid came in under $500,000. The next bidders were in the $800,000 range."

Baker then added, "[The company] couldn't do the work for that amount when they realized what the work actually was. They misread the bid."

The County Commission voted unanimously to approve the new bid and move forward with the construction phase of the project.

The exact timetables for both construction projects remain unclear at this time, with each dependent on a myriad of factors, including materials cost and availability of resources.

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