The Courthouse That Couldn’t: Contractors Fall Months Behind as Penalties Mount
Thurston County’s new courthouse is five months late, triggering a $20-a-day penalty and a standoff over withheld payments.
The court house contractors are talking of having a lay-off of two months, in order that they may escape further bad weather. The contract requires that they shall turn the building over to the county on March 1st. As it is, with the present work, it is not likely to be turned over much before August. This will compel the contractors to pay the penalty of $20 per day. The commissioners are upholding 10 per cent. on each monthly estimate, so that after the entire building is completed, the county commissioners will have nearly $11,030 on hand with which to secure themselves. At present there are but two stone masons at work on the building who are controlled by two bosses and assisted by an engineer, one signal man and two men on the tag ropes. All of these are watched by the county superintendent, A. Rogers. There are also ten stone cutters cutting stone.
“The court house contractors are talking of having a lay-off of two months, in order that they may escape further bad weather.”
Public construction projects blowing deadlines and budgets is nothing new; the 1892 courthouse delay—complete with penalty clauses, retainage, and a frustrated county superintendent—could be a modern capital projects hearing. The question of who bears the cost of delay remains as live as ever.
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