County of Fayette issued the following announcement on Jan. 26.
Costabile Construction of Smock will place the first cell blocks at the site of the new Fayette County Prison next month.
Uniontown, PA - With construction of the new Fayette County Prison moving steadily along, crews are preparing to place the first cell blocks on the site next month.
Concrete casting has been under way since the last week of November at Costabile Construction. Located along Industrial Park Road in Smock, the local company currently has about 35 of the prefabricated cells molded and in various stages of completion.
Owner Dan Costabile and General Superintendent Ron Jackson led county officials through the casting site recently, as part of a mock-up review of what some of the completed inmate housing cells will look like. A fresh batch of concrete arrived that afternoon and was meticulously poured into special molds to create two, two-cell modules.
“One crew is over here building the rebar cages, and the other crew then fits those cages down into the molds for the concrete to pour over them; so the cages are essentially the bones, and the concrete is the skin,” Jackson said. “From start to finish, you have the casting; patch repair; block fill; furniture installation and paint.”
Jackson said it takes about 20 people, divided into crews, to complete each two-cell housing piece. Concrete casting for two pieces containing four total cells is done each day; and each module can be completed in about five days.
“We have 132 pieces in total, which includes the 170 housing cells, but we’re also making the showers, triage and interview rooms,” he said. “We’ll finish them here, then transport them over to the prison site and stack them up like blocks.”
Located at 245 McClellandtown Road in Uniontown, the new Fayette County Prison is slated to be completed by March 2023. Costabile Construction is slated to deliver its first batch of 55 completed cell modules to the site on Feb. 14.
“We’re supposed to be done casting the concrete at the beginning of April, so we should have all the pieces completely finished by that second week of April. We’ll come back for our second mobilization with the rest of the pieces after that,” Jackson said. “This isn’t my first one of these projects. We’ve worked all over the world on corrections facilities. I love being on these things, and I love doing what I do. It’s fun. If it wasn’t fun, I wouldn’t be here.”
Cell block fabrication details have been included in the monthly progress reports provided to county officials by the Fayette County Prison Project construction managers, Site LogIQ of Oakmont. The latest report, released Jan. 12, shows other contractors will also mobilize to the site in the next few months.
According to the report’s Executive Summary, the project is on schedule, with material procurement under way for some contractors and preinstallation and coordination meetings are ongoing, “with a focus on quality and safety.” Construction site safety procedures have been implemented with no issues through December 2021, the report states.
To learn more about the Fayette County Prison Project, visit https://www.fayettecountypa.org/797/Fayette-County-Prison-Project.
To learn more about Fayette County, visit www.FayetteCountyPA.org.
Editor's Note: Photos attached
Ron Jackson (left) and Dan Costabile (right)
Concrete Cell Casting Crew
Concrete Cell Casting
Ron Jackson
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This communication is part of the Fayette County PR Initiative, which is funded through the Fayette County Local Share Account (LSA) and Hotel Tax Grants in cooperation with the Fayette County Board of Commissioners, Fayette Chamber of Commerce, The Redevelopment Authority of the County of Fayette, The Redstone Foundation and other partners. This funding has been designated for the continued promotion and marketing of Fayette County, PA.
For more information, contact Kristi Rooker Kassimer, Public Relations Specialist, at 412-691-0262, kkassimer@fayettecountypa.info or Kaylie Moore, Community Relations Coordinator, at 724-430-1200 Ext. 1611, kmoore@fayettepa.org.
Original source can be found here.
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