San Bernardino County supervisors are expected to approve a $10 million increase for the Adelanto jail expansion on Tuesday, June 25, because of project costs that continue to increase.
It also will mean a delay in the completion of the jail, which originally had been expected to be finished by this fall and now is scheduled to be done by late January 2014.
Last month, the board approved an $8 million increase to the jail project budget and in February signed off on a $6 million increase. The item for the latest changes is on the Board of Supervisors’ consent calendar, a list of usually non-controversial items that can be approved on a single vote.
Board Chairwoman Janice Rutherford said she’s not happy with the cost increases but said the county’s focus is on getting the project done by the late January deadline, which is a condition of state funding.
“I hope this is it,” she said. “We’ve said that in the past and additional problems have cropped up so fingers crossed.”
As with the previous change orders, the main reason for the increase was design problems with the smoke control and fire sprinkler system, said Carl Alban, director of the county's architecture and engineering department. Resolving those problems also caused delays that increased costs for other construction on the project, he said.
Another increase was because of a water well that had a high level of fluoride that required additional treatment. The well will supply drinking water to the facility.
The county was awarded state funding for three-quarters of the cost of the project, up to $100 million, as part of a $1.2 billion jail construction bill approved by the state Legislature in 2007.
The latest increase puts the state’s share of the projects costs at the $100 million threshold, with the county picking up the remaining $44 million. Any more increases will be the sole responsibility of the county instead of being split with the state, as has been done so far, Alban said.
The project consists of three four-story housing buildings plus a support building that includes booking and holding cells and a medical clinic.
The expansion comes at a time when the county jails have been dealing with crowding because of the state’s realignment law that shifted to county jails some prisoners who would have gone to state prisons.
Between January 2012 and last week, 6,932 prisoners have been released early because of crowding, sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said.
The county’s four jails have a capacity of about 6,000 prisoners. The Adelanto project will add 1,392 beds to the existing 706-bed jail, but sheriff’s officials plan to move into the new facility in phases. County officials still are working on a plan to pay for the $37.9 million in ongoing costs to staff the new jail.
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