The Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office in New Orleans is halfway through construction of a 1,438-bed prison complex. Designed to better withstand hurricanes and built with some of the most advanced correctional technologies available, the $145-million prison is on target for completion in summer 2014.
Work has gone well for general contractor McDonnel Group, Metairie, La., but it has been challenged with building a heavy construction project on a small footprint, literally feet from high-security inmates. McDonnel is using precise scheduling, precast cells and extensive building information modeling. The contractor has a 10-person staff on site, 50 subcontractors and 600 workers.