More problems delay federal courthouse opening

The new federal courthouse in Cape Girardeau won't be available for occupancy until the spring, the General Services Administration announced today as it cited numerous problems uncovered during the agency's inspection of the building.

Design, construction and "contract execution deficiencies" forced the delay, the GSA said in a prepared statement. To fix the problems, the GSA must find an additional $2.2 million to pay for changes in the building, bringing the total cost for the courthouse to $62 million. The money will come from unused funds originally allocated to other building projects, the GSA reported.

The delay is just the latest in a long series of problems that have pushed back completion and occupancy of the building, which was orginally budgeted to cost $50 million. Earlier this year, the GSA had planned to start moving tenants in during June and have the building fully occupied this month.

The prepared statement made no mention of problems that will force the replacement or repair of the roof on the 154,000 square-foot courthouse, which will be named for Rush H. Limbaugh Sr.

The problems stem from defects and omissions in the original design documents, discovered only recenlty during inspections and reviews.

Among the problems found after the GSA declared the building "substantially complete" in May, inspectors discovered:

* Insufficient lighting.

* Insufficient door locks associated with the prisoner movement security systems.

* Inefficient cooling systems in a computer room.

* An elevator that was damaged during construction.

Taxpayers will have to foot the bill for the repairs and changes, GSA regional administrator Brad Scott said. "Due to the complex nature of this particular construction contract, it is not possible for GSA to assign the repair work needed under the scope of the existing contract."

The final occupancy date will be set after the GSA finds the needed funds to make the repairs, the agency said. The move-in will occur about seven months after the money is found.

"Typically, when repair work is needed we can just ask the general contractor to fix it," Scott said in a prepared statement. "However, the repairs needed in this case happened in the gap between responsibiities of the first general contractor and the second contractor. Obviously we did not anticipate finding this many deficiencies during our final inspections; and while the problems are relatively minor, there are a number of them."

The courthouse project began in 2002. Delays have included replacing the original contractor, the need to make structural steel changes in 2004 when steel prices rose, five months delay when problems with bedrock conditions forced additional foundation piers to be included, and separating the contract into shell construction work and tenant finishing work.

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