Spokane-based Lydig Construction Inc., which has an office in Bellevue, Wash., is building a $56 million West Side jail, says the director of the facility, which is scheduled to open in September 2011.

The jail director, Penny Bartley, says Lydig started construction on the South Correctional Entity (SCORE) in Des Moines, Wash., roughly midway between Seattle and Tacoma, earlier this year and currently is erecting steel-and-concrete walls for it.

The Seattle office of Omaha, Neb.-based DLR Group Inc. designed the 813-bed jail, which will house inmates charged with, or convicted of, misdemeanors.

Seven south King County cities—Auburn, Burien, Des Moines, Federal Way, Renton, SeaTac, and Tukwila—are pooling their resources to build the shared facility, Bartley says. A consultant determined that, working together, the cities could build and operate a jail at a lower cost than they incur to house their inmates in other facilities now, she says.

While King County is required legally to house inmates charged with felony crimes, the county isn't obligated to house misdemeanor offenders, and it plans to stop accepting such inmates after 2012, Bartley says.

Misdemeanor offenses usually are punishable by a fine, up to a year in jail, or both. The average stay for inmates charged or convicted of misdemeanor crimes is 14 days, Bartley says. The majority of misdemeanor offenses for which people serve time include assault, domestic violence, driving while intoxicated, other traffic offenses, and theft, she says.

Lydig has built other detention facilities on the West Side. It built the 147,000-square-foot Northwest Detention Center, in Tacoma, which opened in 2004, and a 104,000-square-foot addition to that facility last year. That privately-owned jail is operated by Boca Raton, Fla.-based GEO Group Inc., under a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.