New life for a vintage building

The Flathead County Courthouse is slowly coming back to life after a $2.7 million renovation.

Some county personnel already have moved into their new quarters, while other departments will make the move starting Monday and continuing through the first week in December.

All totaled, the project to restore the historic building to its former grandeur came in $100,000 over budget because underground utility work was added in late in the process. There were nine change orders.

Change orders are generally associated with all construction projects, which is why most projects include a contingency fund to cover those costs.

The case was no different for the ongoing renovation of the courthouse. County commissioners awarded a $1,940,800 construction contract for the project, which got under way in February.

The job is largely finished, with some minor work continuing as county employees move into the building.

In the end, the total construction cost of the project grew to $2,279,291 with nine change orders totaling $338,491. Commissioners to date have approved eight of those change orders, which amount to $271,991.

The ninth change order hasn’t been presented for final approval. That $66,500 item is to pay for site upgrades including the installation of concrete for the plaza to the south of the building and for sidewalks and for exterior lights and hand rails required by the city of Kalispell.

Commissioners originally had budgeted 10 percent of the $1.9 million cost for the contingency fund.

Construction costs don’t include all of the costs of the courthouse renovation. The total price tag is reflected in project costs, which also include permit fees, design fees, architectural fees, engineering fees, materials testing and monitoring, along with purchasing furniture, data, phone and audiovisual equipment, a security and door system.

County officials had planned for the plaza and sidewalk work to occur later and be funded outside the project budget. But after underground utility work was completed, the decision was made to accelerate that work, Project Manager Corey Johnson of CTA Architects Engineers said.

The resulting effect is a total project cost of $2,723,689, about $100,000 more than county officials had budgeted for the full project.

County Administrator Mike Pence said the $100,000 will come out of the county’s payment in lieu of taxes account, which holds about $4 million today. Pence pointed out that most of that money, received from the federal government because the county is home to a great deal of federal land, is earmarked for other county departments, most notably the road department.

Pence supported all of the change orders presented to commissioners during the project.

“I don’t regret anything we did,” he said.

For example, originally, the plan was to lay down asphalt at the south entrance to the courthouse, after old asphalt was removed for underground work. But, as the project neared completion, Pence and commissioners agreed that it was time to install concrete sidewalks instead of doing that work later. County employees did most of the concrete work, but materials had to be purchased.

“It’s not very often you exceed your expectations with a project,” Pence said, “but the courthouse did that,” in part because the changes made during the effort.

Some of the change orders resulted from addressing unknown issues with the 108-year-old building, Johnson said.

Steam pipes in the crawl space of the building were discovered to be in poorer condition than expected, and the cost to replace those lines alone was $30,854.

“It was a question of can we get by with what we have, and if so, for how long?” Johnson said. In this case, the commissioners decided to make the upgrade during construction rather than a few years down the road.

That was the same situation for repairs to the flat part of the courthouse roof, he said.

While county Maintenance Superintendent Jed Fisher knew there was some life left in that part of the roof, the need to protect the interior investment became important, leading to the decision to install a new membrane roof at a cost of $14,206. That additional cost came about not as a result of an unknown construction issue, Johnson said, but rather an enhancement judgment by the commissioners.

An unknown discovery that increased the project price more significantly was $69,709 to upgrade the building’s foundation.

“Had we known how bad it was, we would have planned for it,” Johnson said. But until the foundation was excavated, no one realized how much water had seeped in and damaged the mortar holding the stone foundation together.

That meant the old mortar had to be dug out and new mortar packed into the spaces by hand. The work took weeks to complete.

“If you don’t have mortar, the stones can shift and we could have had buckling on the inside of the building,” Johnson said “The floors could have been damaged or a structural wall could have collapsed into the crawl space.”

A change in plans about how to move water away from the building’s foundation after that damage was discovered also increased the project cost by $28,791.

A french drain was installed to direct water into the city’s storm-drain system and downspouts from the building also were connected to the drainage system. The stormwater change was an enhancement to the project, he said, “but certainly a good idea.”

Structural upgrades to the second floor bumped the price up by $14,907. Once floor coverings were torn up, the contractor could see extensive damage, Johnson said. The same situation existed on the first floor, increasing the cost by $16,714.

“Did we know the floors were creaky and uneven before the project started?” he said. “Yeah.” Did we know of the structural concerns and sagging beforehand? No.”

That, and other subsequent issues were considered a life safety matter to be addressed during renovation, he said.

Masonry pinning, which involved repairs to bowed exterior walls, was also unexpected and cost $2,305 to correct.

Additional plaster upgrades throughout the building boosted the price by $25,122. The original bid specifications called for the contractor to patch, repair and paint the courthouse’s plaster interior walls, Johnson said. As demolition occurred, too many walls literally couldn’t hold plaster, “so we decided to replaster all the damaged walls,” Johnson said.

Another fairly costly repair came about after the remaining parts of the center staircase were deemed more damaged than originally thought. So, the historic stair structure was rebuilt at a cost of $33,760.

“It was always the intent of the project to get the stairwell back to its original quality,” Johnson said. But when Martel Construction Superintendent John Beck found that the stairs flexed and the hand rails bowed out, he recommended a rebuild, not simply the cosmetic repairs that were in the original bid package.

Not all of the change orders resulted in increased costs to the county. Changes in the fire suppression system dropped the price by $11,451, as did a change in the glass supplier for some windows to the tune of $7,500.

In addition to the $2.28 million for actual construction, the county spent $26,809 on building permits and impact fees required by the city of Kalispell, $151,340 on architectural and engineering fees under the original contract and an additional $48,300 for additional design work related to changes the commissioners wanted to make to the project.

The budget also increased by $78,296 to pay for furniture for the courthouse, which wasn’t part of the original project bid. Originally, county officials thought they’d move furniture from other county buildings into the courthouse, but some pieces wouldn’t fit as planned, so some new furniture was purchased.

Another additional cost was $31,752 for the data, phone and audiovisual equipment installed in the courthouse.

The cost for construction monitoring and abatement totaled $25,900.

There will be an open house in January for the public to tour the renovated courthouse.

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.