Clerk: Federal building opens June 2

The Rush Hudson Limbaugh Sr. U.S. Courthouse officially opens June 2.

The formal announcement was e-mailed just after 3 p.m. Thursday by Jim Woodward, clerk of court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Woodward said he is scheduled to be in Cape Girardeau today to inspect equipment.

"I don't think it gets any more official than that," said Charlie Cook, spokesman for the General Services Administration in Kansas City, Mo.

The four-story, 154,000-square-foot courthouse has been empty since construction ended more than a year ago. The courthouse project dates back to 2002. The first contract was awarded in 2003, with a construction deadline of July 2006.

But delays included a contractor replacement; structural changes to accommodate rising steel prices; bedrock conditions that required additional foundation piers; the reworking of a contract to separate shell construction work and tenant finishing work; and, in 2007, the discovery of defects and omissions, which led to upgrades or repairs in lighting, cooling, an elevator and security.

The original projected cost of construction, $50 million, rose to $62 million. In March, an additional $2.263 million in design and construction changes was delayed by record-setting rain. Cook said most of the work has been completed.

Courts officials will be the first to move into the building, with phased move-ins following for offices for U.S. Probation, Pretrial Services, the federal prosecutor and the U.S. Marshals Service and district offices for U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, Sen. Claire McCaskill and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson. Cook said all moves should be complete by the end of summer.

Cook said some "minor tenant-finishing issues" are still underway but will not impede moving schedules.

The new courthouse, which is just east of the intersection of Frederick and Independence streets, will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, except on federal holidays. The court clerk's office will be open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays; beginning June 2, the building's phone number will be 331-8800.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127

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