Walker pushes to get courthouse moving

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, April 10, 2002 | 11:04 a.m.

When Randy Walker first toured the Regional Justice Center, the skeletal structure was strangely quiet -- the typical clanging of machinery and tools building the 17-story structure noticeably absent.

That was four weeks ago, 10 months after the $170 million courthouse was scheduled to be finished.

"I walked the Regional Justice Center from top to bottom and saw 10 construction workers; probably four of them were actually working," said Walker, the county's aviation director, who was assigned to finish the project.

This week Walker outlined a series of gaffes that have caused chronic delays in the construction of the courthouse and accompanying $85 million detention center expansion, pushing the projects $33 million over budget.

County Manager Thom Reilly said that for public safety reasons, he wants both facilities completed before the county determines who is responsible for the blunders or takes legal action.

Due in part to loose oversight by Clark County, its largest and most expensive project sluggishly passed its spring 2001 deadline with few public grumbles from administrators.

The detention center expansion is about 10 months behind schedule.

In January Reilly tapped the county's primary source of expertise when it comes to large-scale construction projects: McCarran International Airport's Walker.

The meager workforce at the justice center wasn't Walker's final clue that a lack of oversight has contributed to the two projects being late and over budget.

Walker caught a glimpse of how the projects' budgets crept over the amount allotted when two work order changes -- worth a combined $600,000 -- recently crossed his desk.

A high-tech fiber-optic system was in place at the expanded detention center, but links that would allow it to communicate with the main jail or the new courthouse had been inadvertently omitted from plans, Walker said.

In an attempt to cut costs during some point in the design process, an asphalt parking lot to accommodate Metro Police officers' vehicles was eliminated. Walker said without it, police would have had to unload prisoners in a dirt lot.

Like many of the mistakes made at the two projects, Walker said it is unknown who is at fault -- the county or A.F. Construction, the general contractor.

Determining who is to blame for design flaws and delays has also caused snags.

In the initial stages of the project, A.F. Construction and the county appointed one member apiece to a Dispute Resolution Board that also included an independent representative.

The county's appointment, however, was an architect who was outbid for design of the building. The county lost the last eight claims the board has considered.

"That's not the kind of setup you would want," Walker said.

Reilly said the county's losses before the three-member board are not an indication that it will lose anticipated lawsuits in court. Both sides now have claim managers on site.

Reilly and Walker, neither of whom had anything to do with the projects during the past few years, acknowledged that the county is responsible for some of the problems.

"All we're saying is if we have a problem, it's ours and we'll pay for it," Walker said. "But some problems are yours, own up to them and eat them."

Another hindrance in the design stage was the unceasing input and suggestions from judges who will have chambers in the justice center -- a textbook example of "too many cooks in the kitchen," Walker said.

Some 1,100 architectural changes were made to the Regional Justice Center. During the construction of McCarran's $106 million D Gate terminal, there were 400, Walker said.

"That is way too many of those for a project of this size, and we're not even done yet," Walker said of the justice center.

County administrators are conducting a five-year review of the process to determine what went wrong and how future projects can be completed on time and within the budget.

Reilly echoed commissioners' belief that a state law requiring the government to hire the lowest bidder led to problems at the justice and detention centers. A.F. Construction's bid was $2 million lower than the offer submitted by Perini Building Co., which built the Clark County Government Center and the D Gates.

The county plans to lobby the Legislature next session to change the laws.

"If we took Perini for $2 million more, we'd be ahead today," Walker said, adding that the justice center is about 60 percent completed and the jail about 80 percent finished.

Terry Murphy, a Las Vegas consultant representing A.F. Construction, has said the company was well qualified to build the two projects. She rejected the county's argument, saying the company would never have been bonded for a project of the facilities' magnitude if it were not qualified.