Balfour Beatty locks up $320 million Georgia prison contract

Image: Balfour Beatty

Balfour Beatty has won a $320 million contract to build a new state prison in Georgia, USA.

The new facility will have the capacity to hold 3,000 inmates including housing, administration, programming, general and vocational education, medical, intake and more.

Balfour Beatty will be the construction manager at risk and will engage early in programming and design of the new prison.

It said the approach would allow it to provide collaborative preconstruction and constructability services throughout the design phase.

The contractor has signed the deal with the Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission (GFFIC), in association with the Georgia Building Authority (GBA) and the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC).

Design and preconstruction services will start immediately. Construction is due to start in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The new prison comes after Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp last year proposed spending $600 million to open two new prisons to replace four ageing correctional facilities in a bid to reduce running costs and to make prisons safer.