Pinellas County Jail Upgrade

The Pinellas County Jail Infrastructure Upgrade project provides the campus a new central plant and master control. The new infrastructure building houses a new centralized food service and laundry, both with the capacity to service the entire population plus future expansion. Food and laundry flow in and out of the facility 18 hours per day. The design process analyzed the delivery times and in-and-out flow of these processes to identify optimal placement of washers and dryers, and ovens and dishwashers, as well as cart paths, to ensure the efficiency and safety of this inmate labor driven operation. Good sightlines, cart travel paths protected by weather, and eliminating impediments to swift safe movement were essential to making this project successful. The design-build team reorganized the layout of the laundry area to align with this flow and operations and put the office in the center of the space with clear visibility and access to the entire process.

The new infrastructure building design and planning has several resiliency features intended to maintain critical operations during the most severe weather events and natural disasters. As the nerve center of the entire campus, the building must remain operational at all times.

The kitchen and security controls and central energy plant are intentionally elevated (second and third floors) to raise them above the Category 5 storm surge and the building main first floor is elevated above the 500 year flood plain. Exterior windows are designed to Miami-Dade Zone Five 186 mph wind loads, above the local code required 155 mph wind loads. The natural gas generator-based electrical and chilled water source ensures that the infrastructure building can function as an island through the most severe conditions, providing food, cooling, and security controls to the entire campus until local utilities are back on line.

The new master controls offer the ability to monitor and control the entire campus. While the control room in each building still monitors and manages the movement during the course of daily operations, master control can take control of any building when needed. In the event of an emergency, the new master control also serves as the emergency operations center for the entire campus.

Awards

2019 – Awarded Florida Region Design-Build Project of the Year by Design-Build Institute of America.