Construction on the new Alabama State House is four to six months behind schedule, according to Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA) CEO David Bronner.
Members of the Legislative Council approved contracting with the RSA in September 2023 to design and build a new State House.
The project costs would be reimbursed to the RSA from the state with an 8% administrative fee added on. The state could either buy the property from the RSA after its completion or enter into a 25-year lease agreement that would eventually also make the state the property owner.
The new State House will be located behind the old one. The old State House will eventually be demolished and replaced with a green space area.
The current State House opened in 1963 as the Alabama Highway Department Building. It housed the Alabama Department of Transportation, then known as the Alabama State Highway Department, until 1985 when the Alabama Legislature moved in.
Bronner gave an update on the State House project on Tuesday at an Alabama Employees Retirement System meeting in Montgomery.
“It's going to fall about six months behind. Maybe five months, we’re trying to hold it to four,” Bronner said at the meeting. “It comes from a problem that I created because I wanted in the package doing a big project like that you have one company that you can go beat up on to make sure things are right. We just couldn’t find the people to bid. We had to take the packages and break it down into three different ones like painting has to be separate than for example concrete work. And, you think, ‘Well, that’s different companies?’ Well, the big contractors handle it all. That’s the way they like to do it because they don’t want you to be able to blame him or him to blame her that this isn't right. You’re in charge so you have to do it. What it also does is require me to go out and rebid again. We’ll get those results in the next week or two and get back on it.”
He continued, “The cement work…we’ve made great progress on the budget side. It’s way below where we thought it would be. It’s coming along fine as far as that goes. I was hoping to have all of the cement work done by the end of this coming year so it will run off into ‘26 for a little bit for probably four to six months.”
The project was originally expected to cost $325 million and be completed at the beginning of 2027.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email caleb.taylor@1819News.com.
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