Topping off ceremony marks milestone at Wayne County Jail

Local officials, construction crews and community leaders gathered recently to celebrate a significant milestone in the Wayne County Jail construction project with a time-honored tradition known as a topping off ceremony.

The event, held at the jail construction site, commemorated the placement of the final steel beam on top of the structure — a significant milestone symbolizing the completion of the building’s structural framework.

According to partner Tim Bogner of the Bogner Corporation, the company contracted for the project, a topping off ceremony is a long-standing tradition in the construction industry that dates back more than a thousand years, where builders would place a tree or branch atop the last beam of the foundation.

“This is the final steel beam to be put in place. We can start buttoning up the building now,” he said. “From this point we can start putting in windows and walls and doing the masonry on the outside of the building. It is pretty much cosmetic now.”

The tradition holds special significance for Bogner, whose great-grandfather built an addition onto the old jail across the street from the current project.

“The fact that we have maintained the community’s trust for 120 years means the world to me and the company,” Bogner said. “We have clients who have trusted us to do their work for over a century. We have a motto that solving the customers' small problems will build their confidence in us when it comes time to solve their big problems.”

The new jail, being constructed to expand the capacity of the current one, is a modernized structure designed with improved security, enhanced inmate services and long-term operational efficiency in mind. With the steel framework now complete, the project moves into its next phase — enclosure and interior build-out — which includes roofing, mechanical systems, walls and utilities.

Dan Starcher is the public communications coordinator for Wayne County.