By Brian Eckhouse

Thu, Apr 24, 2008 (2 a.m.)

The Regional Justice Center, arguably the county’s biggest boondoggle, is expected to cost taxpayers an additional $3 million-plus for emergency repairs.

For a chunk of the winter, about 30,000 gallons of water oozed each day from a cracked hot water pipe connecting two boilers to the building, said Frank Wheat Jr., who manages the courthouse for the county. Officials don’t know how long the crack is, but have determined the entire pipe needs to be replaced. Months ago, the hot water supply for the courthouse was rerouted from the 8-inch-diameter broken pipe into a smaller line as a temporary fix.

The broken pipe runs from a pumping station across from the courthouse on Clark Street and into the Justice Center’s lower level. To replace it, the county will have to tear up a small part of Clark Street, excavate, lay the new pipe and connect it to the courthouse, Wheat said. The entire project, including the repaving of the road, is expected to cost at least $3 million. Wheat anticipates the county will apply emergency funds to foot the bill.

A spokeswoman was unsure Wednesday whether county administrators will attempt to pass along that expense to the original contractor, AF Construction. That seems possible, as building managers recently determined the broken pipe lacked sealant when it was installed. Sealant, Wheat noted, could have prevented water from seeping into the pipe. Instead, the pipe absorbed water and was found to be drowning in it, Wheat said. He suspects that caused or contributed to the crack.

The county and AF Construction have sparred for years over who is responsible for faulty construction and at least $15 million in cost overruns. Acrimony over the bitter divorce has spilled into arbitration, through which the sides are seeking millions of dollars from each other.

The pipe project will be moot if the county doesn’t first fix at least one of the boilers, both of which went kaput a couple of weeks ago. The courthouse has been without hot water ever since.

Concerns over escalating maintenance costs tied to myriad issues plaguing the 2.5-year-old building have prompted the county to limit the repairs to just one of the two boilers.

Wheat hopes that boiler will be back at full capacity by Friday, meaning courtrooms may finally reach what most would define as “room temperature.”

Since the boilers broke, the building’s managers have had little recourse to ease low temperatures in the courtrooms. The building’s climate control system relies on hot water to offset lower temperatures. So without the hot water, the temperatures have plunged, startling jurors who wear spring-appropriate clothing.

All week, those jurors have had to leave the courthouse for lunch. County health officials shut down the cafe on the first floor Monday because it lacks hot water.

If only the issues at the Regional Justice Center ended there. The county, to no avail, has spent more than $100,000 trying to identify the source of a strong stench of sewage that wafts periodically into the lower level. And at least one elevator seems to break daily; of late, the lifts for inmates have been unreliable.

One exasperated bailiff joked that with all the building’s problems, he sometimes wonders if he’s walking into a variation of an Abbott and Costello routine: Turn on the hot water and get electrocuted.