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22 firms bid for prison design
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Posted on Nov 18 1999
Twenty-two CNMI-based and off-island companies have submitted proposals for the architectural and engineering design of a new prison in Susupe which is scheduled to begin construction by early next year.
Rep. Heinz S. Hofschneider, chair of the Prison Task Force, said the panel will start reviewing the offers on Nov. 24 and award the contract by mid-December.
Solicitation for request for proposals ended last Monday, but the task force will have to wait seven working days before evaluating these offers to determine if they met the conditions stipulated in the RFP.
“We have twenty-two applications and we anticipate competitive proposals,” Hofschneider told reporters yesterday, adding that most of these came from off-island firms “because this is a very technical project.”
The task force was created last year by the governor to map out a comprehensive prison plan aimed at easing overcrowding at the Division of Corrections as well as meeting the conditions provided in a consent decree forged between the CNMI and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Tenorio administration has already appropriated some $8.84 million under the capital improvement projects to undertake the jail’s initial construction phase.
The amount includes funding for the adult prison, crime lab, immigration detention facility and juvenile facility. The total project cost will reach more than $17 million.
Construction is ongoing in the three facilities — the juvenile detention in Kagman, the DOC compound in Susupe and the immigration detention near the airport.
The first facility located at the back of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles is expected to open next month. Once it is operational, the task force will push forward with the new Susupe prison. The design work will begin in January.
