County engineer says jail construction is behind schedule; contractor given five-day recovery notice

The Marshall County project manager reported the county’s jail construction is behind schedule and that county staff have issued the contractor a formal notice requiring a recovery schedule within five days.

"I just wanted to let everyone know that we are behind, but we're taking steps to recover our schedule," said the project manager (S5), who outlined steel delivery and crane-size issues, a damaged detention-frame shipment, and multiple pockets of noncompliant subcontract work that forced demolition and rework.

S5 told the commission that the project has seen staggered delays across contract phases — some second-floor steel work began three weeks late and parts of the building are as much as 45 days behind schedule — and that coordination problems (pipes and conduit installed in incorrect locations) required removal of recently completed masonry and other corrections.

To enforce progress, the project manager said staff issued a letter to the contractor this morning requesting a recovery schedule. "They have 5 days to comply," S5 said. If the contractor fails to provide an acceptable recovery schedule, S5 said the county will begin withholding funds and will not issue additional payments until after a further review period.

The county has processed 12 pay applications totaling just over $11,000,000 to date, the project manager said, and reported remaining contingency balances across trade packages (general work contingency roughly $165,848.94; plumbing approximately $49,000 remaining; HVAC about $60,000; electrical roughly $100,000 remaining; detention equipment and security electronics funds untouched). S5 said 17 change orders have been requested, with most approved and one pending review; total requested change orders amounted to $148,782.49 and approved change orders to $144,390.49.

Commissioners asked whether schedule slippage would lead to cost overruns or mismatches between percent complete and payments. Committee member (S3) pressed that a third of the money spent should correlate to a third of the work completed; S5 replied that the county is monitoring payments closely and will adjust payouts if claimed work is not demonstrably complete.

The commission did not record a formal vote on remedies during the session; staff said the notice to the contractor is the first step and that the county will review any recovery schedule the contractor submits before determining further action.