Construction of the new Warren County Jail is well underway.

Lance Zaerr Jr. is the vice president of Integrated Project Solutions, the company responsible for managing the construction project on behalf of Warren County.

“So we deal with the day-to-day work, reading through the contractor’s daily logs, looking at all of the third-party material, inspections, watching the request for information, RFIs as they come through, reviewing the submittals as they come through, and really being that day-to-day liaison between the (Warren County) Board of Supervisors, Sheriff (Martin) Pace and his staff, and then also the contractor,” Zaerr said. “(We’re) making sure everybody is coordinated and working together and there’s streamlined communication and that we’re holding all of the documentation for the project, making sure, you know, everything is up to snuff.”

Julie Sims is the assistant project manager. She detailed some of the recently completed portions of the facility. 

“We have the tilt walls that are completed. Structural steel is going up. We have roofing beginning to start; it started this week with one of the pods,” Sims said. “We also have the construction of the water tower that has begun.”

She added that all the walls for the different pods in the facility are now erected. A pod in a jail is a self-contained housing unit for a small number of inmates.

White Construction is the company responsible for building the jail.

Zaerr said that everything is going according to plan.

“We’ve had some weather delays… that have pushed back the contractual substantial completion date. But other than that, we haven’t really experienced any big hiccups. We’re going to knock on wood… but it was a pretty unruly, untamed site,” he said. “So there were definitely several unknowns. You know, there could have been some big problems that came up, but nothing did. And so we were really blessed with that, though we were also prepared for that as well.”

Several changes have been made to the plans since construction began in September. Two car-wash stations have been added. Currently, Warren County Sheriff’s Office vehicles are washed in the basement of the old Warren County Jail.

Metal paneling has also been approved to be added to the exterior to create a more professional look than the previously planned concrete walls.

“I’m sure if anybody drives up there, they’ll be pleased to see the progress that’s being made to the site,” Sims said.

Currently, the substantial completion date is set for February 27; however, some delays due to weather may push that back to March 10.

The new facility, which took decades of advocacy for construction to get underway in 2024, has an expected price tag of more than $70 million and will house some 240 inmates and the capacity for future expansion. It is located on Highway 80, east of the intersections of highways 61 North and 27.