$60 million courthouse, jail structure rises for all to see

Gray steel frames of the $60 million Santa Cruz County jail and courthouse are taking shape on the hillside below the present government complex, eight months after contractor CORE Construction broke ground on the project. Steve Shields, CORE’s project manager, predicts the buildings will be ready to occupy in November 2010.

Young & Sons of Tucson, an earthmoving company, carved the building pads from the rugged and steep terrain. Now the company is busy finishing a road from North Grand Avenue that will take drivers to the jail building.

Triad Steel Fabricators of Wickenburg is providing structural steel for the building frames, Shields said. “You can get a lot straighter wall with metal studs.”

About 100 workers are busy each day on the site, and at least 40 of them are local, Shields said. “In every trade out there, there’s at least one local person.”

This week, Otero Brothers Electric of Tubac was scheduled to supply temporary electric service for the construction, Shields said. He predicted a lot more work for locals when interior work begins in the first quarter of 2010.

The courthouse is designated as Building A, Shields said. Building B, the juvenile detention facility, lies to the north. It will be connected to Building C, the medical unit and women’s facility, and Building D, the adult male detention and sheriff’s office.

A fenced walkway with entrances from buildings B, C and D will allow officers to escort inmates to court hearings without coming into contact with the public, Shields said.

“Jails are expensive because of the electronics,” Shields said, referring to the elaborate security systems.

Although the buildings are equipped with elevators, “you have to build stairs all the way to the top in case the elevators don’t work,” he said.

The buildings lie in the path of water runoff from the hill above, but any water will be diverted by a storm sewer system and good erosion control, Shields said. “Almost all the exposed areas will be covered with plants, landscaping, decomposed granite of rip-rap (large rocks).”

When the buildings are ready, Young & Sons will add an additional two inches of asphalt to the access road, build a perimeter road and pave the parking lots, Shields said.