Groundbreaking Ceremony in Sdr. Omme - Closed Prison
02.10.2023
The arrival of the excavators today marked the culmination of more than three years of intensive preparation and planning for the new closed section of Sdr. Omme Prison.
The new section will have a capacity for 200 inmates. WOW, that's amazing!
The first phase of the construction will involve the maturation of the approximately 18-hectare construction site. The civil engineering contract is being handled by Ivan Jakobsen A/S, and we look forward to the collaboration. The tendering process for the building contract and the security contract is still ongoing and will be finalized during autumn.
When the new closed section is put into operation in a couple of years, Sdr. Omme Prison will become the largest prison in Denmark in terms of capacity. The new closed section adds approximately 20,000 square meters of construction along with associated outdoor areas.
The new closed section will function as a fully operational prison and will include a gatehouse with arrival areas, visiting and health sections, and goods reception, three accommodation buildings, employment and education buildings, sports and recreational facilities, as well as various support functions.
The prison is designed based on several parameters that ensure an operationally optimal institution that caters to both the working environment, staffing levels, and the well-being of the inmates. Construction methods have been determined with careful consideration of the security requirements of the Correctional Services and the need to minimize operational and maintenance costs.
In the photo from left: Karsten Lindberg, Jonas Hviid Mønster, Sonia Bom, Benny Taul Bjerre, and Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard.
“We look forward to, and hope for, a good process during the execution phase. All construction projects come with challenges and unforeseen situations in a general technical sense, but prison constructions are something quite special that requires very specific skills and expertise to be brought into play.
With this project, we have strengthened our prominent position in the total consultancy of complex projects with a high level of security and logistics. We now look forward to seeing the project become a reality and hope that our architecture, together with Hesselholdt & Mejlvang’s art project, can have a positive impact on the daily lives of both the inmates and the staff.”
- Sonia Bom, partner at Alex Poulsen Architects
Sustainability measures have been implemented in collaboration with the client, based on the voluntary sustainability class. Various environmentally friendly initiatives have been developed, including the use of Swan-labeled materials, energy-saving systems, and resource waste control on the construction site, which are particularly noteworthy. Additionally, life cycle assessments (LCA) have been conducted for three different building typologies, leading to the use of materials with lower CO2 emissions than alternatives, wherever possible with regard to security requirements.
The project has been developed by a consulting team consisting of the main consultant Alex Poulsen Architects, with Viborg Engineers and BARA-land as sub-consultants, and COWI/Rambøll as security advisors. The development of the project has taken place in close and value-creating collaboration between the Correctional Services and the consultants.
The collaboration has focused heavily on creating safe and contemporary correctional facilities while ensuring optimal working conditions for staff in the beautiful heath landscape surrounding the existing open prison and Omme River. A special thanks for the collaboration go to the representatives from Sdr. Omme Prison.
