SALT LAKE CITY — The new Utah State Prison won't be completed until July 2020, according to a timeline provided to the Legislature's Prison Development Commission on Wednesday.

"This is just kind of a pie-in-the-sky schedule right now," Jim Russell, state Division of Facilities Construction and Management assistant director, said during an update to the commission on the estimated $550 million project.

House Majority Assistant Whip Brad Wilson, the commission's co-chairman, said the aging state prison in Draper has been neglected for a long time and needs to be replaced sooner rather than later.

"That facility is bad, and it's getting worse every day," said Wilson, R-Kaysville.

Utah Department of Corrections Executive Director Rollin Cook echoed the concern.

"We are really going to struggle, folks, keeping that facility up and running," said Cook, a member of the commission.

But the state has yet to finalize a contract with the consultants hired to help the state with the project, and only recently obtained access to one of the two possible sites located west of Salt Lake City International Airport.

Department of Administrative Services Executive Director Kim Hood told the commission that the timeline was "not a worst-case scenario. This is not a best-case scenario. It's a reasonable-case scenario."

The July 2020 completion date is about six months longer than Russell had told the commission last fall.

Hood said Gov. Gary Herbert has already requested cost estimates for each of the two sites for the 4,000-bed facility at the location selected by lawmakers for the project last fall.

The governor also intends to tour both sites before one is chosen, Hood said.

Herbert spokesman Jon Cox said the governor had no specific concerns about the project.

"This is an important decision for the state, and the governor wants to make sure we get it right," Cox said.

Environmental issues

Russell said the easternmost site would be roughly $10 million cheaper, but it appears to have serious environmental issues as the result of an adjacent abandoned landfill scattered with hazardous materials.

He said the state has only had access to the site for a few days and snow is making it difficult to examine it closely, but there are also more extensive wetlands there that add to the environmental concerns.

"We'll be fighting this battle forever," Russell said, citing the probability of lawsuits filed by inmates and others claiming exposure to hazardous materials spread to the site through the high water table.

The timeline he presented calls for both sites to be evaluated by May and the property chosen to be purchased by the end of September.

The state will be getting help from a consulting group formed by Big D Construction and the Arizona-based Kitchell Corp. that helped construct the National Security Agency's data collection center in Bluffdale, if a contract can be negotiated.

Once the consultants are in place, Russell said the state will turn to hiring an architect and contractor for the project so design work can begin. Construction on the site is expected to start in late March 2017.

Wilson said the Legislature's role in the project is appropriating funds and monitoring how they're spent.

"We don't have any interest in building the prison," Wilson told Russell. "That's your job."

He said the commission's next meeting likely won't be until the spring, when additional information is anticipated on the sites.

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