Weather delays construction

Published 10:01 am Wednesday, March 21, 2018

The tentative completion date for Charlotte County’s new courthouse has been pushed to April, according to Project Superintendent Tim Burge.

“Blair’s [Construction] completion schedule reflects completion mid to end of April due to the weather,” Burge said. “There’s no significant progress … outside on the site the month of February due to weather (and) not being able to work.”

However, the construction schedule still needs to be finalized based on the inclement weather days, according to Burge.

As far as site work on the outside of the courthouse, Burge said not much has gotten done this month due to the weather.

“The brick mason worked as much as he could,” Burge noted. Also, “the steel contractor has completed all the miscellaneous steel in the building.”

Inside, painters have been finishing up and electricians are installing light fixtures. In addition, the generator was also tested this month and “ceiling tiles are all in throughout the building,” Burge said.

He said the judges’ benches are complete, wooden stairs are finished and glass is starting to be installed. However, there’s still work to do with the ceramic tile.

“A whole lot is going on inside, just nothing can happen outside until we get some decent weather,” Burge said. The only procurement left is for small appliances.

Last month, Burge said inclement weather caused significant construction delays on the project. At that time, he said, “Every day it rains, two or three days after it, until it dries, we can’t do any work. It’s too muddy.”

While he said outside work had been very trying over the last month, much was accomplished on the interior of the building.

“Everybody is ready to go, but the weather has not been cooperating thus far,” said Burge last month. Most notably at that time, steel was erected on the connector between the new courthouse and existing Clerk’s office in addition to the tresses being put in place.

The total budget still remains unchanged at $13.9 million.