Thomas & Hutton provided civil engineering services for the 74-acre, 2,500-bed correctional facility.  Owned and operated by The GEO Group, the facility is designed in accordance with state of Georgia requirements for medium security facilities and was developed on property owned by the State of Georgia under a 40-year lease agreement.  Thomas & Hutton provided site layout, surveying, environmental delineations, permitting for freshwater streams, evaluating existing water and sewer systems, site design, permitting, and construction phase services.

Existing site topography required mass grading of over 700,000 yards of soil.  The project included a water booster pump station; a 400,000-gallon elevated water tank; 6,000 linear feet of 12-inch water improvements to serve the facility; significant off-site sewer improvements, including 5,500 linear feet of 12-inch gravity sewer replacement; and the installation of an Auger Monster bar screen device that serves both Riverbend and the neighboring Baldwin State Prison. The facility opened two months ahead of its scheduled January 2012 completion date. Riverbend received the 2012 Design-Build Institute of America Honor Award.  Riverbend was one of Thomas & Hutton’s first Civil 3D projects using BIM coordination with the General Contractor and Architect.