C.D. Smith offers $9.3M low-bid for ventilation upgrades at Milwaukee detention facility

Listen to this article

Fond du Lac’s C.D. Smith Construction is the low-bidder with a $9.3 million offer on a project to upgrade ventilation at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility.

The contractor’s bid beat out a $9.7 million offer from Miron Construction in a bid letting that closed on Tuesday. The state Department of Administration has not yet awarded the contract. The agency bid the work after the state Building Commission approved the project in May. The project was enumerated in the 2019-2021 state budget.

The project aims to address heat stress inside the 15-story detention facility in downtown Milwaukee, where only three floors have tempered air. The rest of the facility is subject to hot and humid conditions due to the building’s sealed windows, and temperatures often exceed 90 degrees.

The prison’s kitchen is a particular problem area because it was originally designed only for re-heating meals prepared offsite. The kitchen was later converted to a full-scale production kitchen, but its ventilation system was never designed to handle heat from ovens and other appliances. Temperatures in the kitchen as a result have registered above 120 degrees.

The project would upgrade ventilation systems to keep the temperature inside the facility from exceeding 80 degrees. The work would upgrade ventilation systems, add cooling units and fit the system to run on electronic controls.