North Dakota Law Enforcement Building Wraps Additional Work

By Lisa Kopochinski 

WILLISTON, N.D.—JE Dunn recently completed additional work on the original $54 million Williams County Joint Law Enforcement and Administration Building project in Williston that was originally constructed two years ago.

In 2018, JE Dunn partnered with Klein McCarthy to complete an 8,000-square-foot expansion that included remodeling the existing jail into office space.

Included in that project was a new intake unit, additional inmate beds, a medical unit, laundry jail administration, and associated support services for the existing Williams County jail.

The expansion spanned approximately 34,000 square feet of space for inmate housing, and 6,000 square feet of space for law enforcement offices, as well as 7,000 square feet of remodeling of existing space. Jail space included 12,000 square feet of enclosed parking. Other components included concrete masonry, structure steel, carpentry doors, windows finishes, specialty correctional and security facility systems.

In 2019,  JE Dunn partnered with JLG Architects and built out the shell space on the third floor of the Administration Building and remodel the first floor of the Administration Building and construct new office space and waiting rooms for the local Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

Based on a fast track design-bid-build process, JE Dunn turned over the new DMV space on December 31, 2019. The project was completed on time and under budget.

Some of the constructability challenges the JE Dunn team overcame with JLG Architects, was constructing a new entrance to the DMV in the location of an existing stairway. Additionally, the work in the $1.2 million build-out was completed while the existing owner maintained the operation of their existing administration offices.

The challenge was to demo and reconstruct this space before Jan.1, 2020 due to the County having to relocate their DMV due to an expiring lease agreement in a separate facility.