Rikers Island Shutdown Plan Progresses With Construction Firms for New Manhattan Jail
The selection of Tutor Perini and O & G Industries to design and build the White Street lockup represents a final piece in the borough-jails puzzle. This article originally appeared in The City. By Reuven Blau NEW YORK - The city’s ambitious plan to close Rikers Island took a major step forward after the Adams administration this month tapped two construction firms to build a new lockup in lower Manhattan — one of the final major outstanding contracts. The city’s Department of Design and Construction intends to use Tutor Perini and O & G Industries to construct the new 1,040 bed jail on White Street in Chinatown, officials announced earlier this month. “This is the last big piece when it comes to the jail side of construction,” Zachary Katznelson, executive director of the Independent Rikers Commission which lobbies for the closure of the jails by the East River, told THE CITY on Wednesday. In May 2023,...