Rain only slightly slows courthouse work

Work on the Madison County Courthouse is going smoothly, but May’s frequent downpours will likely delay the project’s completion into mid-February of next year.

On May 28, the Madison County Board of Supervisors put on some hard hats, got their shoes dirty and took an inside look at the ongoing renovation and expansion work.

The $7 million project – which officials have said is halfway complete – aims to improve safety and security within the 1830s-era structure.
During the board’s May 28 workshop meeting, project representatives – including architects Eric Amtmann and Doug Gilpin of Charlottesville-based architect company Dalgliesh, Gilpin, Paxton PLLC – led officials through the worksite, describing what has been completed so far and trying to give officials’ a vision of what’s to come.

While some areas of the historic courthouse’s exterior set to be refurbished – including the cupola, some windows and sections of the brick archways – are completed, the interior remains a shell. The main circuit court courtroom lacks a proper floor, is missing chunks of plaster from its walls and has various wires dangling from the ceiling.

As you walk through the courtroom to the west, an opening in the wall leads to the currently open-air second floor of the rear addition, which will add a total 15,020 square feet to the historic section’s 3,260 square feet, according to project representatives.

The second floor of the expanded section will include the circuit court clerk’s office, a public lobby and records’ rooms. A gaseous fire suppression system will be used in some parts of this side of the building where the use of water sprinklers could damage historical documents, Amtmann said during the tour.
The bottom floor of the expansion, accessible through a separate rear entrance, will include the juvenile and domestic relations court, holding cells and a sally port.

The courthouse will also feature new bulletproof windows, skylights and a card reader swipe system to enter certain areas, according to officials. There will also be separate “secure zones,” including a separate elevator, for prisoners.

“You won’t have a prisoner next to someone standing at a desk picking up a marriage certificate,” Amtman said.

(Some Madison County Circuit Court judges had told officials in the past that the courthouse’s previous setup provided opportunities for intimidation and confrontation between defendants, witnesses from opposing sides, the public, jurors and court personnel due to a lack of separate entrances, parking areas, bathrooms and waiting areas.)

The addition will display a two-tone brick exterior, with the lower level a slightly darker shade than the upper level, according to Amtmann. These shades of brick on the rear section will not match the historic part of the building exactly, but rather provide a “harmonious” match, Gilpin told officials as they checked out a sample brick panel near the southern side of the courthouse.

“You’re not trying to trick people into thinking this is an old building,” Amtmann said of the rear addition. “It should be clear what’s historic and what’s not.”
Since work first began on the current phase of the project in July 2008, the supervisors have approved an additional $260,000 to be spent on the project. These “change orders, ” which include unexpected expenses and extra money for aspects of the project that were incorrectly estimated, total close to four percent of the total contract price, according to officials.

The supervisors had anticipated that the project could extend as much as 12 percent above its initial contract price, according to County Administrator Lisa Robertson. There is money in the county’s current budget – in the capital improvements program and contingency, or “rainy day,” fund areas of the budget – to cover these extra expenses, the county administrator told The Eagle.

However, with the project halfway done, it’s unlikely the extra expenses will amount to as much as expected, she said.

“We’re way past the things that could have been ‘budget busters,’” such as hitting rock near the historic foundation, Robertson said.

Although the project is still on schedule to be “substantially” completed by Jan. 28, 2010 at the moment, some of the project’s brickwork has been delayed due to a “very wet” May, Amtmann told the supervisors at its May 28 meeting.

The architect told the supervisors he expects the general contractor – Fredericksburg-based Warren Flynn Construction Company – to request a 10-20 day extension.

However, even after the project’s completion date, the contractor will likely take about a month to finish any extra “punch list” items, project representatives said at the meeting.

After those are complete, the courthouse will also need to be fitted with exterior and interior furnishings, such as furniture, signs, a recording system, phones and other equipment, the architect said. These extras are not included in the contract price but will be paid for using money included in the current budget, Robertson told The Eagle.

In late 2007, the county completed the initial $920,000 phase of this project, which officials started planning about a decade ago. The front end of the revamp work included the rehabilitation of a former residence behind the current courthouse (known as the Estes property) to serve as the new commonwealth’s attorney’s office, relocation of nearby utility lines and the creation of the parking lot behind the Madison County Social Services building.

The bottom floor of an office building at 1480 N. Main St. will continue to serve as the temporary home of court trials until the renovation is complete.