State Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Range) says to expect changes in the delivery method for the Escambia County men's mega-prison after the price for its sister facility, named for Gov. Kay Ivey and nearing completion in Elmore County, doubled from $623 million to $1.25 billion.
Albritton, who chairs the Senate General Fund Budget Committee, blamed inexperience for the dramatic cost overruns.
"Like I said, we hadn't built one in 50 years," he explained during an interview with Mobile radio's FM Talk 106.5's "The Jeff Poor Show." "We were inexperienced, but we went and we also have done a great deal of corrections in that way," he said. "And I mean, fixing the problems that we discovered. We have, I think, a very good team in Elmore that's putting this together, that has lots of oversight in matters. We've discovered problems and we've corrected them. I think we're online that when we get to Escambia, it's going to be done better, cheaper, quicker."
The initial legislation passed during a special session in 2021 mandated the state forgo the traditional design-bid-build process and negotiate a deal with Montgomery-based Caddell Construction, one of the contractors involved in Ivey's failed lease plan.
According to Albritton, taxpayers should expect a return to the traditional process.
"We intend to go back to that system," he said. "The other system, I'll refer to that way, was not conducive for our opportunities. Anyway, we didn't know what we're doing, and I don't think some of the contractors didn't know what they were doing."
Jeff Poor is the editor-in-chief of 1819 News and host of "The Jeff Poor Show," heard Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-noon on Mobile's FM Talk 106.5. To connect or comment, email [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @jeff_poor.
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