Published Sunday, November 30, 2008

Courthouse work uncovers three surprises

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Newnan Times-Herald

In any construction project, something unexpected is bound to turn up.

So far, there have been three surprises during work on the $7.5 million restoration and adaptive reuse project on Coweta's 1904 Courthouse.

One find, deep in the bowels of the structure, was a raffle drum used to select the jury pool many years ago.

Another was an old sidewalk underneath the existing inner sidewalk.

At some time in the past, the current sidewalk was poured right on top of a previous sidewalk, said Mitch Headley, president of Headley Construction, the general contractor for the courthouse project.

All of the old sidewalk will be removed, and then re-poured in its original configuration. Several pieces of concrete had to be removed over the years as tree roots grew into them, leading to gaps in the sidewalk.

And asbestos tiles were found underneath concrete poured to enlarge the courthouse vaults.

Soon, scaffolding will go up on the courthouse roof, for the tower and dome work.

Headley is waiting to hear back from the structural engineer working with project designer OJP Architects about the structural stability of the roof.

Headley called in his own structural engineer to evaluate the building before they put up the scaffolding, which he estimates will weigh around 40,000 pounds. The engineer recommended some extra bracing in the dome. The interior wooden bracing will be made permanent, Headley said. He's just waiting on the OK from the other engineer.

He isn't worried about how much weight the roof can hold.

"I have confidence, based on the history, that I can do anything to that dome and it is going to be fine," Headley said. "Over the years there has been a lot of wood added to it."

His father, Bill Headley, used similar scaffolding in 1979 to patch the copper roof and remove an aluminum coating. The engineer fears that, because of the weight from all the previous stabilization efforts, coupled with the scaffolding, some of the members might become over-stressed.

Headley said last week that he hoped to be able to start installing the scaffolding today.

Most of the work that has been going on so far is removal of the concrete floors and ceilings added when the courthouse vaults had to be expanded. All that concrete has now been removed, Headley said. Crews are currently tearing out the damaged plaster ceilings. When drop ceilings and air conditioning were added "they pretty much destroyed a lot of the plaster ceilings in the smaller rooms," Headley said. "While we have them open, we'll install all new electrical." The whole building will get new wiring, and that is why the clock can't be operable during the project. The new ceilings will be painted drywall.

Plaster ceilings that are in good shape, including those in the hallways, will be kept and restored.

In the next month or so, Headley expects to begin cutting the holes for the elevator shaft.

But most of the other work will be put on hold while the copper work is going on.