A joint venture involving Spokane-based Lydig Construction Inc. has been selected as the design-build contractor for a $160.5 million prison facility expansion in Connell, Wash., a small town 100 miles southwest of Spokane.


Lydig and Hunt Construction Group, of Phoenix, teamed up to form Hunt Lydig Joint Venture, says Larry Swartz, president of Lydig Construction. That partnership received an intent-of-award notice on the Connell project from the Washington state Department of Corrections earlier this month, says Larry Hueter, a department project manager. He says the state is scheduled to sign the construction contract with the venture on May 19.


This is the biggest project weve been associated with, Swartz says of Lydig Construction, which had $193 million in contract revenue in 2005, putting it atop the Journal of Business Leading Contractors list. Were very excited about it. Its going to be a great project.


The job involves building a 1,782-bed medium-security prison at the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center, a 600-inmate minimum-security complex located on a 40-acre site at the north end of Connell.


The medium-security facility is slated to be constructed on 58 acres of land just north of the established prison. Hueter says a natural coulee separates the minimum-security prison from the expansion site, and a road will be constructed between the two.


The medium-security complex will include 23 buildings with a total of 520,000 square feet of floor space, Hueter says. Individual structures will range in size from 4,000 square feet of space to 36,000 square feet. Seven of the structures will house offenders.


An eighth residential building that would house up to 266 inmates initially was proposed there, but the state didnt fund that structure.


Hunt Lydig is scheduled to start work on the new facility June 1 and to complete the complex by the end of 2008.


The state would be able to fill the facility the day it opens, by moving there offenders who are housed elsewhere now, including some that Washington state pays to house out of state due to overcrowding in its prisons, Hueter says.


Coyote Ridge spokeswoman Ruth Perkins says the Department of Corrections is anticipating adding 450 employees to staff the new facility. She says 155 people work at Coyote Ridge now.


Lydigs Swartz says Integrus Architecture PS, of Spokane, designed the new medium-security facility, with the assistance of a national architectural company, Atlanta-based Rosser International Inc., which Integrus has retained as a consultant on the project.


Also, he says, a number of Inland Northwest subcontractors are slated to work on the project.


They include MW Consulting Engineers PLLC, of Spokane, which will handle the mechanical and electrical design; the Spokane office of the Denver-based civil engineering firm CH2M Hill Inc.; Engineered Control Systems Inc., a Spokane company that designs and installs low-voltage and security electronics; and CML Specialties Inc., a Coeur dAlene-based company that installs detention doors, locks, and steel cells.


Hunt Construction is a large national contractor that completes approximately $1.8 billion in work annually and has $6 billion to $8 billion in jobs under contract at any given time, according to its Web site.


The companys current projects include the $800 million Palazzo del Lago Resort, in Orlando, Fla.; the $611 million Washington Nationals Stadium, in Washington, D.C.; and the $425 million Arizona Cardinals Stadium, in Glendale, Ariz.


Swartz says Lydigs joint venture with Hunt is the first that the Spokane company has entered into. The two companies had looked at forming a joint venture on another project, but ended up not doing so.


When the Coyote Ridge project came up, Swartz says, Lydig contacted Hunt about the possibility of forming a joint venture to do the job.


Weve been doing work for the (Department of Corrections) for 20-some years now, he says. Hunt brought in some large project experience, and they had done some big corrections work. It seemed to be a good complement.


Contact Linn Parish at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at linnp@spokanejournal.com.