NEW NEIGHBORS

City and county government share new home

Downtown Superior project presented a host of challenges

By Ellen Hickok-Wall

An atrium serves as the main entrance to a city of Superior administrative building that's being joined to the Douglas County Sheriff Department. The 52-foot atrium is open and will have glass rails on each of four levels, said Al Rinta, a project superintendent with construction manager Adolfson & Peterson, Minneapolis. The $43 million building, which includes an 80,000-square-foot city building and a 115,000-square-foot county building, is scheduled for completion in February. Photo courtesy of Adolfson & Peterson

The city of Superior in Douglas County is the scene for a building under construction that's light years ahead of its time, said James Litwin, project manager with Adolfson & Peterson, Minneapolis.

"They have the greatest potential across the country to show how city and county governments could work together to save taxpayers' money," he said of a nearly $43 million project that presented many complexities that contractors had to overcome.

"To have a project start in 1998 and really take hold in 2000, break into three phases, include at the last minute city offices and be ready to finish on schedule is nothing short of a miracle from my perspective," Litwin said. "It's a miracle that we're not over budget by millions of dollars."

Initially, Litwin said, Douglas County asked for something fairly simple.

"Can you build us a jail and a health and human services department for $17 million?" he said.

Litwin said the initial challenge was to build a state-of-the-art building that matches the existing county courthouse, built in 1919.

"But the owner's needs kept developing," he said. "In 2000, they asked us to let the city into the project."

Letting the city in meant adding a bay, Litwin said, so that the project under way wouldn't have to be changed.

The building comprises an 80,000-square-foot administration building and a 115,220-square-foot jail building, with an atrium joining them. The work is scheduled for completion in February, 2003.

"It's an amazing feat of work," Litwin said.

A team effort

In a joint venture between the city of Superior and Douglas County, the original 1919 courthouse is being enhanced with a city administration building and a county Sheriff Department. The city decided to enter into the project well after the county addition was under way, so planners agreed to add a separate city facility and join the two with an atrium, pictured here. Photo courtesy of Adolfson & Peterson

Adolfson & Peterson is construction manager on the job, so Litwin said his company has to share the credit of carrying a project through major scope changes and challenges.

"We've really bent over backward to get this done, but the tradespeople on the job committed to working hard, too," he said.

Superior contractor Reuben Johnson and Son Inc. impressed Litwin, he said.

"They stepped up to the plate without whining and without complaining and built the building," Litwin said. "They worked through one of the toughest winters we've had."

A major challenge, Litwin said, was excavating below the footing level of a mechanical building.

"Behind the county courthouse, you had a 30-by-70 building," he said. "We leveled the building down to the first floor. There's a basement under there with boilers that heat the courthouse.

"Since our building needed to be deeper, we actually exceeded the footing by 20 feet," Litwin said. "Then they built a wall around the perimeter. Reuben Johnson came up with a way to make huge tip-up panels that were 20 feet tall and had a big L on the bottom."

Mike Murray, vice president of Reuben Johnson, said he preferred not to describe the panels that so impressed Litwin, claiming only that they were a trade secret.

"The excavation went much deeper than the bottom of that boiler room," Murray said. "That was certainly a challenge."

New role

Murray said a unique element of the city/county project is the role Reuben Johnson is playing on the job.

A skyway on the second level of an addition to the Douglas County Courthouse, Superior, provides a connecting link between the existing 1919 building and the new structure. The nearly $43 million complex, a joint venture between county and city government, is set to be completed next February. Photo courtesy of Adolfson & Peterson

"Reuben Johnson is a local general contractor here in Superior," Murray said. "We don't always play a subcontractor role in these types of situations. That's something new to us."

Murray said the status gave his firm the freedom to focus on the work.

"We poured approximately 14,000 cubic yards of concrete," Murray said. "We also provided the mass excavation for the foundation on the job, which involved 40,000 cubic yards of dirt to an assigned waste site."

Reuben Johnson also is working on two school buildings for the Superior School District.

"It's nice when some of this big work is right in our back yard," he said.

The Superior city/county job has been beset by controversy over project changes and costs that have risen from $17 million to nearly $43 million as the scope altered, Litwin said.

"But long after the politics of this dies out, the enduring quality of the building and the work that the men and women in the community put into it will prevail," he said.

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