A year after the official groundbreaking, construction crews are making significant headway on what some are touting as the most expensive state building project in Indiana history.
The 1.4 million square-foot, $1.2 billion-dollar Westville Correctional Facility in LaPorte County is on target for its projected 2027 completion, according to Roy Darnell, estimating administrator for G.E. Marshall, Inc. Since the start of the project in September 2023, the company has been performing site demolition, mass earthwork, foundation excavation and backfill, aggregate bases, and working on all exterior utilities.
“The project has an aggressive schedule with large amounts of work for us to complete in a short amount of time,” he said.
Overseeing the building project is the facility’s construction team, Build Westville, which includes Granger Construction, based in Lansing, Michigan; F.A. Wilhelm Construction of Indianapolis; and Garmong Construction Services, headquartered in Terre Haute. Elevatus Architecture, based in Fort Wayne, has been selected as the architect for the job.
So far, Darnell said a total of 12 of the existing buildings, mainly on the south edge of the site, were removed, leaving the remainder of the facility operating as is for now for the 2,600 inmates who are currently housed there. Originally built in 1951 as the Dr. Norman M. Beatty Memorial Hospital mental health facility, the structure was refitted as a prison in 1979.
Funded through the Indiana General Assembly, the Westville project will consolidate employees and house up to 4,200 male inmates as well as the 1,600 inmates currently incarcerated in the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to Gov. Eric Holcomb’s office. Plans for the new space include areas for administration, classrooms and vocational training, security, recreation and a central utility plant. There will also be accommodation for a 200-bed mental health care and addiction recovery unit. Annie Goeller, deputy commissioner of the strategic alignment for the Indiana Department of Correction, told Building Indiana Business that 80 percent of the inmates will benefit from those services.
Darnell said despite a workforce shortage in the region, he estimates that one year into the project, about 200 people are working at the site, a number, he notes, increases daily as more construction packages are awarded.
