Oklahoma County committee hears construction updates on courthouse design, elevators and jail timeline

Oklahoma County infrastructure committee members on May 9 received construction updates that covered a possible design-build approach for courthouse renovations, confirmed elevator orders for annex work and described geotechnical and asbestos-related costs for the behavioral health care center project.

County staff said the county has $5,000 in a purchase order to pay for existing design work and intends to use that design criteria either to solicit bids or to proceed with a design-build procurement. "If we decide to opt for a design build approach, we'll pay for the work that's been done with the purchase order, $5,000 purchase order that's been put in place," a staff member reported.

The update included an elevator schedule: "All elevators have been ordered. We're working on the final details on the cabs. The current schedule is, late July to begin taking down some of the annex elevators and start the process," a presenter said. Committee members were told that elevator equipment for other projects has also been ordered.

On the behavioral health care center site, a geotechnical engineer recommended replacing unsuitable soils with rock. Staff provided a unit price obtained from bidding of $57 per cubic yard for the rock work and estimated non-scope materials for geogrid at about $50,000. The committee was told these items will be presented as an amendment under the unit price and a change order for the non-scope geogrid items. "That engineer has recommended the rock, anticipating some soils. We have a unit price of $57 a cubic yard, so we'll implement that. And then we'll have, non scope items for the geogrid of about $50,000," the presenter said. Staff said pricing and documentation should be available "this week."

Members were also briefed on progress at the existing jail: crews were cleaning the eleventh and twelfth floors and staff estimated a completion window in late September. "Looks like still August, September, late September is the latest date where we will be done," the report said.

Committee members moved and seconded motions to receive the reports; each motion passed on voice votes. No formal procurement award or budget appropriation was approved during the meeting; the design-build path and any change orders will require follow-up actions if the committee pursues them.

The committee discussed next procurement steps for the courthouse design work and confirmed staff will proceed to solicit bids or pursue design-build based on the established design criteria and available funding. Members noted that weather had slowed exterior work during April but that schedules were otherwise on track.

The meeting record shows routine oversight activity and no final decisions on procurements beyond the motion to receive the status reports. Future meetings will contain the formal contract or change-order items necessary to implement the construction and remediation work.