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Harrison County to Advertise Bids for Parking Garage Repairs; Engineers Find No Design Flaw
Summary
County engineers reported plans and specifications for a parking-garage repair are 99% complete, estimated 180 days for construction once a contract is executed, and said multiple structural engineers found no design or construction defect; staff will finalize contract documents and advertise for bids.
Harrison County officials said they will advertise for bids within about a week to repair a county parking garage after county and outside engineers completed a design review.
Jackie Turner, Grayson County engineer, told the Harrison County Board of Supervisors that the plans and specifications are “99% complete” and that the proposed construction period is “gonna be a hundred and 80 days to get it complete.”
Turner said the county is finalizing contract documents and will run a standard advertisement period to receive bids, award contracts and then begin the work. Turner added that the construction timeline assumes specialty contractors and that shortening the schedule would likely raise costs.
Why it matters: The garage has shown signs of settlement and deferred maintenance that county staff and commissioners said need an external contractor for long-term upkeep. County officials discussed both near-term repairs and the need to hire ongoing maintenance services rather than relying on in-house crews.
Turner said a county operations-and-maintenance manual exists and was provided to the county when the garage was first built. “There’s a complete O and M manual that we do have,” Turner said, adding that routine inspections and contractor maintenance are typical for concrete garages.
On structural integrity, Turner said multiple reviews found no systemic design or construction defects. “We had literally, I think, four different structural engineers look at it now, and nobody can find anything that has to do with core design or the core installation,” Turner said. He added that the team plans to drill bores during construction to check for settlement and that the contract will include a unit price to inject fill where settlement is found.
Board members asked whether the county had been using the O&M manual and whether the maintenance work had been deferred. Turner characterized the current state as “essentially, what we’re doing is 20 years of deferred maintenance,” and recommended contracting out routine maintenance and annual inspections going forward.
Next steps: Staff will finalize contract documents, publish the bid advertisement, receive bids, and return to the board for award and contract execution. Turner said the county will incorporate provisions in the bid to address possible settlement work and to reflect the expected 180-day construction period once a contract is executed.
The discussion occurred during the board’s regular meeting; no construction contract award or budget appropriation was approved during the session.
