City taps AECOM to lead replacement of Rikers

Joint venture was awarded $107M contract

Steve Morriss, AECOM's Group President of Design and Consulting Services in the Americas, and Riker's Island (Credit: Wikipedia)
Steve Morriss, AECOM's Group President of Design and Consulting Services in the Americas, and Riker's Island (Credit: Wikipedia)

The city has tapped a joint venture led by AECOM to oversee the development of four new correctional facilities to replace Rikers Island, in a contract valued at $107.4 million.

The New York City Department of Design and Construction awarded AECOM and Philadelphia-based Hill International a contract to direct the development of four new jails in Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn, the engineering giant announced on Wednesday. The joint venture will manage four separate design-build teams who will develop the facilities, which are expected to cost a total of $8.7 billion and each house 1,500 inmates.

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In April, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the prison island would shut down by 2026. According to AECOM, the four jails will mark the city’s first-ever design-build program. Design-build is a method in which architecture and construction teams work in tandem; it’s often touted as time and money saver. Though the state has stopped short of authorizing all city agencies to employ design-build, officials specifically green-lighted use of the method in 2018 for the Rikers replacement project. The city issued a request for proposals in October.

According to the New York Daily News, some City Council members are pushing Albany to extend design-build authority to the city’s Parks Department.

 

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