Back to Work on the New Albemarle District Jail?
By Lauren King, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.
Nov. 4–ELIZABETH CITY
Construction work at the new Albemarle District Jail could begin again by the end of this week after a two-month halt, the county manager said.
The county ordered the work stopped in September when it discovered what it called defective work that didn’t conform with the building’s plans.
Since then, Pasquotank County Sheriff Randy Cartwright has been working with inspectors to determine whether there are more problems to be addressed before work begins again.
On Monday, Cartwright and County Manager Randy Keaton met with N. Carl Monroe, owner of N.C. Monroe Construction Co., the general contractor for the new jail. They toured the site and looked at various construction deficiencies the county’s inspectors found during the work stoppage.
Keaton said inspectors are still working to complete their review of the site.
Beginning this week, a third party will be on the site to test the building’s exterior waterproofing and review the exterior veneer and wall cavity. The hope is to let N.C. Monroe begin repairs of the wall cavity and veneer as soon as tho se tests are complete, and Keaton said he hopes to have the company back to work by the end of this week.
The structural integrity of the building will be tested in the next three weeks.
In letters written on Oct. 26, N.C. Monroe Construction and Brickcraft Masonry Inc., the masonry subcontractor, said that they still believe the stop-work order was unnecessary but want to work with the county to continue construction of the district jail.
Camden, Pasquotank and Perquimans county officials in December celebrated a groundbreaking for the $19.6 million, 67,200-square-foot district jail. The 248-bed facility will replace a jail that is more than 35 years old.
The new facility was quickly taking shape in the Pasquotank County Commerce Center until the quality of the masonry work was called into question this spring.
Problems included missing wall reinforcements and small gaps between cells — wide enough, Cartwright said, for an inmate to hide contraband or pass something to a neighbor.
During the work-stop inspections, Cartwright said, additional problems have been discovered, such as hollow wall sections that could be easily knocked out, allowing inmates to store contraband or use the concrete pieces as weapons.
After the county’s stop-work order, Monroe sent a letter to the county on Sept. 26 that said the action was “ill advised and inappropriate.”
“These omissions were not structural in nature, were not a safety threat to the personnel on site, were easily fixed and will not affect the quality of the final project,” he wrote.
However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture sent its own inspectors because USDA Rural Development had awarded a $12 million loan for the project.
“It was USDA’s observation that there were indeed possible construction deficiencies that had occurred causing some work to be ripped out and repaired/replaced,” Susan Christensen, an area specialist with the department, wrote in an Aug. 24 letter to the county.
In the letter she requested that the contractor identify its solutions before proceeding with any additional work.
Lauren King, (252) 338-2413, lauren.king@pilotonline.com
—–
To see more of the The Virginian-Pilot, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pilotonline.com.
Copyright (c) 2007, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.