Dallas County Jail Medical Modification

Hill managed the design, construction, testing, and commissioning of the Dallas County Jail Medical Modification project located in Dallas, TX. The jail, which is the seventh largest in the U.S., is operated by Dallas County and the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department. A one-of-a-kind facility, the project involved the renovation and modification of 140,000 SF of existing space in the lowest three floors of the Lew Sterrett North Jail Tower. This facility provides on-site medical and mental health services for an estimated 6,000 inmates. Inmates who required acute or emergency medical care were transported to a nearby Parkland Health and Hospital System facility. This project allows inmates quick, direct access to medical and dental care as well as treatment and screening for mental illness.

Cost and schedule control services were paramount for this complex public project to meet the arranged opening date and accept inmates in an operating facility. Hill project controls professionals worked with County stakeholders, the architect, and the contractor to address delays and cost overruns by facilitating detailed schedule reviews, leveraging third-party expertise, and reporting. Hill ultimately helped the County find creative ways to move forward with the project.

Hill was responsible for verifying the accuracy of the contractor’s submitted schedules. Hill determined that the schedules contained elements not accurately reflecting the CPM. On behalf of the County, Hill suggested the inclusion of expertise from a third-party reviewer. Specializing in construction scheduling, the third-party company confirmed Hill’s schedule review and findings were correct. This additional confirmation allowed the teams to come together and collaboratively create workarounds to continue construction. 

As the contractor submitted payment applications, Hill reviewed the documents to make certain the claims were correct and adhered to the prescribed budget. By employing a construction inspector to verify the claims on-site, Hill discovered several of them referenced work that had not begun and materials not yet on-site. Hill managed these issues and recommended the appropriate payments based on the correct information. In addition, Hill maintained a detailed report to distribute monthly to the County. The report explained and illustrated all costs and budget trending as well as forecasted future activity to help the County commissioners understand the project costs and scheduling. 

Hill was recognized by CMAA’s North Texas Chapter for the project, which won in the category of Best Building Renovation Project Greater Than $10 Million.

“The facility promises to change the nature of medical treatment at the jail. This project could not have been done without the tremendous teamwork demonstrated by the consolidated efforts of Parkland Jail Health, the Commissioners Court, the Sheriff’s Department, and Dallas County.” -Lupe Valdez, Sheriff

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