The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
Step 1: Workers dug down six inches below the old basement floor and removed nearly everything inside, exposing the brick exterior walls and the dirt underneath.
Step 2: They leveled the base and installed a plastic water barrier and pea rock for drainage. Fiberglass rebar formed the structure of the new floor, and new concrete was poured throughout. The new IT infrastructure for the building is shown as well.
Step 3: They covered the interior walls with fresh drywall and evened out the exterior walls with lots of mud.
It's no small task. Contractors have been hard at it for months, preserving the Foster County Courthouse from the ground up.
The Foster County Commission accepted a $2,175,000 bid from General Roofing & Construction, a local firm owned by Leo Straley. In January, the firm went to work on Phase One, which covers the majority of the basement square footage.
On Monday, Project Manager Ted Keller gave the Independent an exclusive look behind the scenes at the major overhaul underway.
As shown in the photos above, all the interior furnishings were demolished or deconstructed.
As with any historic preservation project, contractors have found some unexpected "surprises."
For example, as they dug through the heaving concrete floor, they found 10-by-12 inch "tunnels" underneath that housed the building's heating and ventilation (HVAC) distribution systems. The new HVAC systems will now be overhead, above the new drop ceiling. Special beams were attached to the ceiling of the basement to ensure structural integrity after holes for ductwork were cut through load bearing walls.
General Roofing and Construction is the same firm that has done work on the Foster County Courthouse in the past, including dome restoration, tuckpointing the exterior, restoring the cornice, dome window replacement, and roof replacement. The masonry contractor is Aberdeen Masonry, a firm in Aberdeen, S.D. that specializes in historic preservation.
Concrete is being poured through window openings, and new stairways have been built from the new concrete up to ground level.
All this work is being done while county employees work on the upper two levels of the building, so consideration needed to be made for infrastructure housed in the basement that serves the rest of the building. As shown in the second photo, all the information technology infrastructure needed to be relocated and reinstalled before they could finish pouring the concrete floor in that room.
Keller said Phase One should be complete by July 1, with social service staff moving back into their offices in June.
Work on Phase Two will begin around mid-May, when some woodwork will be removed from that area for reuse later.
The Independent will provide periodic updates on the construction progress in the coming months.
