Gov. Nixon Marks Significant Construction Progress at Fulton State Hospital

Press Release

Gov. Jay Nixon today toured the recently-constructed Energy Control Center (ECC) and Services Building at Fulton State Hospital. The structure is the first on campus to be completed and will house the ECC, Maintenance Shops, Emergency Command Center and Communications Hub, and Computer Information Services. Most notably, the ECC site also includes the Dietetic Services and Materials Management facility, which was previously housed in a deteriorating World War II-era building.

"Construction at the Fulton State Hospital campus is progressing steadily, and today was an exciting opportunity to tour the new facilities and view the development first-hand," Gov. Nixon said. "The replacement of the outdated and dangerous facility was long overdue, and the new state-of-the-art mental hospital will provide safer conditions that are more conducive to modern treatment for generations to come."

In 2014, the General Assembly backed the Governor's plan for replacing the state's outdated and deteriorating maximum-security psychiatric facility at Fulton with a new state-of-the-art mental hospital that will be safer and more conducive to modern treatment.

"The Office of Administration is incredibly proud of our state employees, project consultants, and contractors for undertaking a project of such magnitude," Office of Administration Commissioner Doug Nelson said. "We are very pleased with the work we have seen thus far, and look forward to continuing this progress."

In addition to the ECC Services Building, several portions of the Fulton State Hospital have been completed on time and on budget. Demolition and abatement of several buildings within the west phase was completed in 2016.

New boilers were installed at the Department of Elementary & Secondary Education's School for the Deaf and the Department of Correction's Cremer Building (previously serviced by the Fulton State Hospital boiler) after construction of the Guhleman and Hearnes Boiler Plant was completed in June 2016. The Fulton State Hospital project is scheduled to be complete in 2018. The last building to be demolished will be the maximum security Biggs Forensic Center after the patients have moved into the new facility.

Fulton State Hospital, built in 1851, is the oldest state psychiatric hospital west of the Mississippi River. The Biggs and Guhleman Forensic Centers on the campus treat patients with serious mental illness who are committed by Missouri courts for evaluation and treatment related to a crime, or who have seriously assaulted patients or staff in our other state psychiatric hospitals.

Biggs is the state's only maximum security psychiatric facility. Since 2007, the facility has taken in more than 1,000 admissions from 99 Missouri counties and the City of St. Louis.

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