Progress Advancing on $155 Million Grant County Jail Project

Photo: Metal panels are being installed on the exterior of the Sheriff’s complex at the new Grant County Jail. | Photo Credit (all): Courtesy of Lydig Construction

By Charlie Lange

GRANT COUNTY, Wash. – Construction of the new Grant County, Wash., jail is proceeding on schedule, with the project on track for completion next summer.

Located in central Washington, the new $155.5 million, 512-bed facility will address overcrowding issues at the county’s current 85-bed jail in a larger space. The new campus was designed for centralized operations to allow for safer, more efficient movement of inmates and staff through the intake unit, Sheriff’s complex, medical facility and areas designated for court proceedings.

The intake area will include a triage station where incoming inmates can be screened for medical, mental health and substance-use disorder needs to determine placement within the facility. Those with outstanding needs will be placed in cells located near the triage station, and can be moved to cells within the general population once their conditions have improved.

Staff quarters will also include physical and mental wellness spaces, including a gym and break room, along with areas for on-site training, which is expected to save the county considerable funds previously spent on sending officers out of the building for external training sessions.

Project Challenges

To build a bigger facility to meet these new demands, Grant County officials chose the site of a former racetrack just outside of the city of Ephrata. While this remote, rural location offered more space for the sprawling facility, it also presented challenges such as a lack of existing water and sewer lines and other utilities.

Grant County worked in partnership with project architect Clemons Rutherford & Associates (CLA) and construction manager at-risk Lydig Construction to craft an annexation agreement with the City of Ephrata and extend public utilities to the site.

Staffing — for both the construction and eventual operation of the finished jail — has also presented its own challenges. With few experienced local subcontractors available to join the project team, Lydig has had to pre-qualify and split up scopes of work to source labor. Some scopes that would usually go to local crews were awarded to regional firms that were willing to travel, and housing those workers or coordinating multiple trades on a site that had no existing infrastructure has been an ongoing endeavor.

Similarly, the local talent pool for potential corrections staff is relatively small, so the layout of the new jail is designed around indirect supervision, allowing the sheriff’s office to maintain similar staffing levels as the old facility.

The project plans were outlined in detail in the 2025 Regional Edition of Correctional News.

Latest Steps

According to project manager Marc Seeberger of Lydig, the project is tracking better than expected, thanks in large part to coordination with officials from Grant County, the city of Ephrata, the architect and other entities involved.

Some of that coordination involved working with the Grant County Public Utilities to build a new service center adjacent to the site. Lydig also worked with the state of Washington Department of Transportation to construct a new roundabout at the State highway that intersects the new city street that was also constructed as part of the project.

Seeberger says the exterior facade of the new jail facility is nearly complete and weather-tight, with exterior panels being finished on the sheriff’s portion of the facility. Inside the 32,600-square-foot sheriff’s complex, finish work including painting and ceiling work is ongoing.

As for the 156,000-square-foot jail, Seeberger estimates that one of the two 256-bed housing pods is about 90% complete, with the other at about 75% complete. Detention hardware contractors have begun to install locks on the cells and detention doors, and Lydig crews are installing mezzanines outside of the cells, which will be followed by painting, ceilings and other finish work. The intake area, infirmary, and kitchen and laundry areas are also close to completion, Seeberger says, with equipment ready to be brought onsite.

Other exterior work including concrete and asphalt paving, security fencing and landscaping are all ongoing, with the goal of completing this work before winter weather hits.

Seeberger anticipates the project to wrap and be handed over the Grant County by May 2026. As its current jail remains overcrowded, he also expects the county to be eager to move in, though he acknowledges there may be some ongoing work to ensure a smooth transition and ensure security and public safety measures are met.

He also notes that the facility was built to accommodate future capacity, so the county may only need to operate a portion of the jail when it first opens.