Headley Construction has been awarded the bid for rehabilitation of the historic Coweta County Courthouse. The company’s low bid of $6,284,000 beat out the next lowest bid by approximately $600,000. Construction should take approximately 18 months.

The bid included all needed work on the building’s interior and exterior. Of the six potential alternatives relating to the courthouse roofing, commissioners decided on an option that included replacing all the copper on the clock tower with new copper and replacement of all missing ornamentation.

“Throughout the design and bid process we have researched, discussed and reviewed the existing copper on the tower with numerous copper experts; hence, the variety of alternatives that were provided for bidding,” said consulting architect Lord, Aeck and Sargent representative Courtney Swann in a Sept. 10 letter to commissioners. “Ultimately, the replacement of the copper on the tower appears to be the least expensive alternative. The replacement copper will ultimately weather and patina to the rich coloring of the historic copper, match the historic profiles, replace missing elements and provide an opportunity to correct some ill advised installation methods that currently exist. It should be noted that it was anticipated that a significant percentage of the existing copper would be damaged in the removal process or determined to be unusable for rehabilitation and reinstallation.”

As for the courthouse interior, the plans take full advantage of the historical aspects of the building. There are no major changes planned to the four main halls, to the courtroom or the grand jury room. A conservator will examine the paint and fixtures to determine, as close as possible, the original colors and styles.

Other bids were provided by Batson-Cook Construction at approximately $7.61 million, Juneau Construction at $6.86 million and Malone Construction at $9.63 million.

The Coweta County Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Coweta County Probate Court, the future occupants of the space, are expected to move in sometime in 2010.

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