Stockton Project Bid Winners Announced

STOCKTON, Calif. — Joint venture Hensel Phelps-Granite was named as the primary contractor to design and build the first phase of the $900 million prison medical facility project near Stockton.

In addition, HOK is serving as the architect of record; Thorton Thomasetti and Minner, Stinnett, Koo, Agbayani are performing the structural work; TTG Schwab is performing the mechanical and electrical work; Winseler and Kelly, and Kjeldsen, Sinnock and Neudeck are doing the civil work; and 3QC is doing the commissioning.

With an estimated cost of $129 million, the first phase includes preparation of the 144-acre site where a former California Youth Authority facility is being demolished, construction of a heating and cooling plant, a lethal electric fence, materials warehouse, communications building, armory and parking lot.

Hensel Phelps and two joint ventures, Skanska/Moss and Clark Construction/McCarthy Construction, are finalists for Bid Package No. 2, which will be announced in late June. That phase of the project is expected to cost $512 million and consists of 33 buildings, including prisoner housing, common areas, maintenance building and worker housing.

Although rumor has it that winning the first package would preclude a bidder from winning the second or third packages, Wendy Saunders, senior community relations manager at URS Corp. in Sacramento said that was not the case.

“I wouldn’t say that’s true at all,” Saunders said. “They are different kinds of projects [requiring] different skill sets.”

Bid Package No. 3 — renovation and new construction at the unused Dewitt Nelson facility, is worth $124 million. The bid winner will be announced in October, said Saunders.

The construction project is expected to create 5,500 jobs over the next two years, and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation estimates it will employ more than 2,400 medical workers, correctional officers and others once the facility is open, generating an annual payroll over $220 million.

The majority of construction is slated for completion by June 2013 and the facility will be fully occupied by Dec. 31 of that year, said Saunders.