Construction in downtown Cumming has started to go vertical. Work on the new jail and courthouse facilities remains on schedule to finish in December 2014, said Joe Lee, program manager. The update was part of the Wednesday meeting of the SPLOST VII Jail/Courthouse Project Team. The facilities’ construction is being funded through the current special purpose local option sales tax, or SPLOST, which was approved in a November 2011 referendum. Lee added that the project is still within the $100 million budget, despite a few unexpected finds. The groundwater at the jail site was a few feet higher than initial tests showed, he said, so “a whale of a dewatering system” has been installed to manage stormwater. Funding for unanticipated changes was built into the budget under contingency, which will have to be used for the modifications at the jail, Lee said. The find may change the schedule for certain phases of the project, he said, but overall, the timeline doesn’t need to be extended. Work on the facilities began five months ago. Since then, about 43,000 man hours have been invested in the projects, said Davey Balboa, construction manager for Turner/Winter. The construction companies, operating jointly, have 86 people working on site, Balboa said. They’ve also had about 200 tons of steel and 3,200 cubic yards of concrete delivered. The deep foundation and basement for the jail is complete, he said, and the courthouse’s deep foundation is nearly complete.“We’re definitely gaining momentum,” he said, “and we’re hoping to keep it going.”
Construction in downtown Cumming has started to go vertical. Work on the new jail and courthouse facilities remains on schedule to finish in December 2014, said Joe Lee, program manager. The update was part of the Wednesday meeting of the SPLOST VII Jail/Courthouse Project Team. The facilities’ construction is being funded through the current special purpose local option sales tax, or SPLOST, which was approved in a November 2011 referendum. Lee added that the project is still within the $100 million budget, despite a few unexpected finds. The groundwater at the jail site was a few feet higher than initial tests showed, he said, so “a whale of a dewatering system” has been installed to manage stormwater. Funding for unanticipated changes was built into the budget under contingency, which will have to be used for the modifications at the jail, Lee said. The find may change the schedule for certain phases of the project, he said, but overall, the timeline doesn’t need to be extended. Work on the facilities began five months ago. Since then, about 43,000 man hours have been invested in the projects, said Davey Balboa, construction manager for Turner/Winter. The construction companies, operating jointly, have 86 people working on site, Balboa said. They’ve also had about 200 tons of steel and 3,200 cubic yards of concrete delivered. The deep foundation and basement for the jail is complete, he said, and the courthouse’s deep foundation is nearly complete.“We’re definitely gaining momentum,” he said, “and we’re hoping to keep it going.”
