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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

County Pays for Suspension of Courthouse Work


Journal Staff Report
      Santa Fe County government has started paying the contractors hired to build a new county courthouse $38,000 a month — to do nothing.
       That's the fee due to the contractors — Bradbury Stamm is the general contractor — for suspension of work on the courthouse construction. The building work has come to a halt because of gasoline contamination at the construction site at Montezuma and Sandoval in downtown Santa Fe.
       County Manager Roman Abeyta told the county commission Tuesday that work can't resume at the site until it's cleaned up and that county government will proceed “month to month” with the work-suspension payments.
       Commissioner Mike Anaya asked if the county is considering other sites for the new courthouse “just in case” and as a possible way to avoid canceling the construction contract for the $38 million project altogether.
       “We're not there yet,” Abeyta said of looking at other locations, although he did say people with property to offer have been calling county officials.
       The courthouse site is now a huge hole in the ground. Work stopped in recent weeks after crews hit gasoline contamination that was much worse than the county expected during digging for a planned underground parking garage.
       County and state Environment Department officials say the contamination has spread to the courthouse site from old underground storage tanks from former filling stations in the neighborhood. The Journal offices next door are on an old Texaco station site, but so far officials don't believe any of the contamination comes from the Journal's lot.
       Workers are now using ground-penetrating radar to search for any old tanks that government agencies don't know about.
       Abeyta told the commission it's still hoped that remediation of the courthouse site can start in September. He said county consultants should have a report on the amount of contamination at the site by next week, and that joint work by the county and the Environment Department is expected in 60 to 90 days on the sources and amount of contamination on surrounding lots.
       He said that once all that information is in hand, it would be time to discuss whether the courthouse project needs to be moved to a new location.
       

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