UPDATE: Re-issue Planned for $365m Graterford RFP

HARRSIBURG, Penn. — Pennsylvania canceled the $365 million Request for Proposals for the replacement of the aging and overcrowded Graterford state prison as state officials prepare to revise and re-issue the RFP for a design-build contractor to develop the proposed two-facility complex.
 
State authorities canceled the existing RFP for SCI Graterford East and SCI Graterford West, which has a combined maximum contract award amount of $365.3 million, “as currently issued in the best interests of the commonwealth,” according to a notice issued by the Pennsylvania Department of General Services.
 
“The department is taking immediate action to revise and re-issue the Request for Proposals for a design-build contractor,” according the DGS statement. The DGS intends to issue a Notice to Proposers on the project in early October, according to a September 28th communication issued to interested parties by the governor’s office.
 
As reported in Correctional News, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court issued an injunction to halt the bidding process after contractors filed a lawsuit in August claiming the Department of General Services violated state law in limiting the list of prospective contract awardees to three contracting firms during the first phase of the bidding process.
 
The existing RFP specified the construction of two facilities that would deliver 4,032 beds to replace the existing state prison in Graterford with a multi-building, expanded complex in a blended-security configuration.
 
Originally constructed in 1929, the State Correctional Institution Graterford is the largest maximum-security prison in Pennsylvania. At year-end 2009, the 2,800-bed prison housed more than 3,600 inmates, according to DOC figures.
 
The new East facility will incorporate more than 2,000 maximum-security beds, while the new West facility will include 2,000 medium-security beds, according to project documents.