The main prison building on Alcatraz Island offshore from San Francisco will undergo a major overhaul thanks to $63 million in federal funding.
The building’s hospital wing and exterior walls will be renovated, which is expected to be completed by 2027.
California-based Tutor Perini Corporation construction company has won a $48.6 million contract to shore-up deterioration and structural deficiencies on Alcatraz’s main building—which also includes the hospital, as well as administration offices and the central cell house—according to a statement from the company. It is the third Alcatraz project the company has managed.
The company said it expects work to begin on the project this month and be completed by the summer of 2027.
It is unclear if the contract is part of the federal funding awarded to Alcatraz from what’s known as the Great American Outdoors Act, which passed in 2020 and provides the National Parks Service with up to $1.3 billion annually for improvements to parks.
A spokesman for the company could not confirm whether the funds came from the legislation. The National Parks Service did not respond to a request for comment.
Over the years, the cell house and the hospital wing on Alcatraz have been updated and structurally reinforced. But new renovations will focus on fixing elements such as deteriorated steel, strengthening concrete foundation walls, and repairing walls in the basement and shower room, according to the National Parks.
Alcatraz Island has received $50 million in visitor fees, appropriated funds, and donations over the past 20 years, which have gone toward 20 different renovation and rehabilitation projects, according to the parks service.
Parks officials said ongoing upgrades and construction projects protect the site from deterioration and seismic events.
Alcatraz—located in the heart of the San Francisco Bay—was discovered in 1775 by Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala. According to the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons, a presidential order in 1850 allowed the United States military to set the island aside for future use. Over the years, it served as a military site, a lighthouse, U.S. Army barracks, and most famously a maximum-security federal penitentiary.
The island opened to the public in 1973 as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, according to the prisons bureau, and today receives 1.4 million visitors annually.
