A rendering of a new men’s prison proposed for an area of Lincoln County about 15 miles south of Sioux Falls, presented to state lawmakers on Nov. 14, 2024. The complex would house about 1,500 inmates. (Courtesy of SD DOC)
A new men’s prison in Lincoln County will cost the state $825 million, lawmakers learned Thursday morning.
That figure is $256 million more than the $569 million state lawmakers have appropriated for the project over the past few years. It also does not include the cost of paving and widening the two-lane gravel roads that surround the project site, about 15 miles south of Sioux Falls at the intersection of 477th Avenue and 277th Street.
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Even without those road costs, the $825 million “guaranteed maximum price” now locked in for the multi-building complex is higher than any previous estimate publicly offered for the prison’s construction.
Department of Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko, her finance director and the project’s construction manager faced pointed questioning from members of the Joint Appropriations Committee and the public on Thursday about the price tag, plans for flooding mitigation and about the possibility of building somewhere else.