August 1, 2024

SAN DIEGO, C.A. – Balfour Beatty has achieved major milestones on two San Diego County projects including the groundbreaking of the East County Crisis Stabilization Unit in El Cajon, California, and the completion of the Youth Transition Campus Phase 2 project in Kearny Mesa, California.

Balfour Beatty and County of San Diego recently broke ground on the $29 million East County Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU). The CSU is designed to provide individuals a safe space to stabilize and recover amid a behavioral health crisis in the area and is expected to reduce emergency department patient loads, particularly at the nearby Sharp Grossmont Hospital, which has one of the busiest emergency rooms in the country.

The 14,000-square-foot facility will be the first CSU in East County and will feature expanded services including 24-hour care and recliner chairs for patients to receive assessments, medication assistance, and peer and individual therapy and support. The County’s newest CSU is projected to be completed in Fall 2025.

Balfour Beatty also celebrates the completion of the $84.5 million Youth Transition Campus Phase 2 project. This facility replaces the former 70-year-old Juvenile Hall facilities with a state-of-the-art campus that is a nationwide model for therapeutic, trauma-informed and “home-like” youth rehabilitation to improve outcomes for high-risk youth in San Diego County.

The new facility features sports and recreational areas, visiting areas and various classroom settings including technical education programs. The Youth Transition Campus Phase 2 accommodates up to 72 youth in 12-bed cohorts that have individual sleeping quarters with private bathrooms, one-on-one counseling spaces, meeting rooms, a shared kitchenette and furnished common dayroom that includes televisions, books and phones. Phase 2 also provides a large garden area with fruit trees and other seasonal plants that will provide fruits and vegetables for the facility’s developing “farm-to-table” culinary arts program.

The facility’s second phase follows Balfour Beatty’s successful completion of the  award-winning Youth Transition Campus Phase 1 in January 2022 which received the Design-Build Institute of America Project/Team National Merit Award. The completion of Phase 1 and Phase 2 concludes the five-year, $210 million project which was contracted in 2019.

"These milestones demonstrate our commitment to being the County of San Diego's trusted building advisor,” said Dan Ferguson, Balfour Beatty Justice and Civic director in California. “Our long-standing relationship with the County allows us to understand their vision deeply and translate it into facilities that serve the community's evolving needs. We're honored to play a role in improving mental health access and youth rehabilitation services in the county and we look forward to continuing our work to build a stronger, healthier San Diego."