(KAIR)--Plans are being put in place to modernize a longstanding, local area prison.

The Kansas Department of Corrections Thursday announced that options will be explored to construct a new facility at the current location of the Lansing Correctional Facility.

The press release from the agency says the structures that currently stands, built in the 1860s, would be replaced.

The Lansing site has been used to house offenders since 1863.

Department of Corrections spokesman Todd Fertig told the Associated Press the plan is to mothball historic, maximum-security units of the prison built in the 1860s and to raze lower-security units of the prison built more recently.

Kansas Department of Corrections Secretary Joe Norwood says the project would take about three years to complete.

He states in the press release that the project is expected to be “budget neutral” based on the efficiences that would be found with a modern facility.