By Matt de Simone
Recent progress on the eventual renovations to the Botetourt County Courthouse brought forth an update at last week’s Botetourt County Board of Supervisors meeting.
Botetourt County Capital Projects Manager Rich Evans gave the board report about the ongoing negotiations and recent agreements involving the renovation project. Most notably, the project will finally see some movement at the turn of the year following another set of bid negotiations that will continue until sometime in November.
Over the last two years, progress on the renovations has slowed. The county removed the project’s original contractor (KNA Contracting) last year. The original project was set to be completed in two phases. The first phase was moving the historical files out of the courthouse, setting an infrastructure to tear down the old courthouse, and physically moving the Breckinridge Law Office building (the former location of the county history museum) to the west of courthouse square.
On August 15, the county and architecture/engineering firm Architectural Partners agreed on a contract to combine both “phases” that will save the county some costs from the original plan. Evans shared with the board that he asked for a specific breakdown of all of the items, and then took out all items from the proposal he or the county could complete including access control to the temporary courthouse and audio/video part of the project that wasn’t completed.
Architectural Partners, who designed the project, requires two months to combine the drawings and have everything ready to put out to bid. On October 15, the project is expected to go to bid, with a 30-day bid period to four prequalified general contractors. Evans shared with the board that he has worked with each of the contractors over the years and has “great confidence in all of them.”
From there, the bid would be accepted around November 15, followed by an 18- to 24-month construction period following the county’s negotiations with the general contractor (30 days). Mobilization on construction is expected to begin in early 2025, depending on when the old law offices/hotel/museum building is relocated.
“The general contractor will get (the old law offices) ready to move, and then Wolfe Movers will move it,” Evans explained in a recent interview. “Wolfe tells (the county) what we need to do to prepare that building, which is part of the bid document. The general contractor will have historic masons come in and brace up that building.”
Once the building is braced for a move, Evans explained, a small road will be constructed around the backside of the Old District Courthouse followed by setting a foundation for the new location of the law offices prior to Wolfe’s arrival. Then, the building can be moved and mobilization of courthouse construction can begin.
Evans recently shared that he has notified the contractors. “The bids are coming. They should be ready for it. Typically, you do these bids in 45 days. I’m trying to save any time I can. Two of the contractors have bid on this (project, phase A) once before, so they know exactly what they’re looking at. So, 30 days is reasonable, instead of 45.”
Currently, the courthouse renovation project is set for completion somewhere around the end of fall to late 2026.
