Bay County Juvenile Courthouse construction project delayed after inflation raises costs
BAY COUNTY — Bay County will have to wait longer than expected to build a new juvenile courthouse due to rising construction costs caused by rapid inflation.
The Bay County Commission voted Tuesday to rescind the guaranteed maximum price for its Juvenile Justice Courthouse construction project.
With recent inflation affecting the costs of construction materials, Bay County Commissioner Robert Carroll said the price the county agreed on with the contractor kept rising and the commission was no longer comfortable with the new cost of the project. The commission decided to put it out to rebid, he said.
“We thought it was an opportunity to put it back out on the streets,” Carroll said. “Allow other contractors and the current contractors, who are more than welcomed to rebid it as well, maybe they can find some other savings there.”
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In October, the board awarded GAC Contractors Inc. a GMP contract in the amount of $12,579,567 for the construction of the new courthouse addition. Back in August 2019, Bay County board members approved the selection of JRA Architects Inc. and GAC Contractors Inc. as the design and construction team for a new Juvenile Justice Courthouse.
The Juvenile Justice Courthouse has been operating for years on 11th Street, apart from the Bay County Courthouse on Fourth Street. In 2018, it sustained damage from Hurricane Michael, which gave county officials the idea to merge it with the main courthouse to make it easier and more efficient.
“(Hurricane Michael) gave us the opportunity to kind of put these together, put it on one campus, one control point, kind of a one stop shop,” Carroll said. “It can be confusing if you have to go to court and if you don’t know which courthouse to go to, it’s now all one facility, or it will be, so we’re excited.”
Despite rescinding the bid, county officials will be able to keep all of the designs they worked on with the architects, which will save time moving forward, Carroll said.
“Those plans are separate, we have a contract with them,” Carroll said. “It’s fully permitted, so we can move forward.”
With the vote, Carroll said the next step is to re-advertise the project, which the county will do as soon as Thursday. He encourages any contractors to reach out to county staff and pick up the construction plans for consideration.
“They’ll have a pre-bid meeting, allow the contractors to talk to our staff, talk to our architects, any questions they may have,” Carroll said.
Carroll advises that this is only a slight delay in the county's plans and the goal is to get back on track as soon as possible. He said the commission is excited about the finished product.
“The judges and the staff over there, they’ve been extremely patient, and we thank them for that,” Carroll said. “They’ve been working in some cramped quarters over there, so we need to get this going.”
This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Bay County Florida Juvenile Courthouse project delayed as costs rise
