City Hall expansion to begin

Jeffrey Libby

Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2002 | 10:57 a.m.

Demolition of a part of Civic Center Plaza is expected to begin by the end of this week, starting a three-year, $39.5 million expansion that will quadruple the size of City Hall.

By Monday excavation should begin for the main addition, which will increase City Hall from 56,500 square feet to 283,000 square feet, said John Simmons, Henderson construction manager. Crews will remove about 20,000 yards of earth to pour the foundation, he said.

The city and Pittsburgh-based Dick Corp., general contractor for the project, on Thursday signed the official "notice to proceed."

"Basically, what that means is that from there, the clock started ticking" to an expected completion date of September 2004, Simmons said.

Later Thursday a federal district judge ruled that the city can proceed with its contract as awarded in December, rejecting an argument by a competing contractor that irregularities had tainted the bid process.

PCL Construction, of Colorado, had challenged several aspects of the bid award. Addressing what appears to be the last of those legal challenges, U.S. District Judge David W. Hagen ruled that a last-minute bid change by a subcontractor -- used by both Dick Corp. and PCL -- did not invalidate the contract. Dick Corp. bid $2.1 million less than PCL.

"We're looking forward to a good relationship with the general contractor for the next three years," Simmons said.

The expanded City Hall, when complete, should rival other Las Vegas Valley municipal buildings such as the Clark County government building and the Grant Sawyer state building, project architect Mark Hobaica, of HCA Architects, said.

It should also help tranport Henderson from the image of the small city of 65,000 it was in 1989, when the current building was constructed, to the city of 200,000 that it is today -- the second largest in the state.

About 70 people sat down to coordinate the project last week, Simmons said, including representatives from the city construction department, design consultants, the general contractor, suppliers and subcontractors.

Simmons organized the meeting in part to avoid delays that plagued construction of a $7.2 million municipal parking garage. Though KBA Construction completed the 4 1/2-story garage in December, the company says it is owed more than $300,000 for change orders requested during construction. The city, in turn, says it may charge KBA more than $450,000 in late fees.

The parking garage was the first part of the expansion of City Hall. The total bill is estimated at $65 million.