Austin News

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, construction on a nine-story state building in Austin has been completed on time and within the $135 million budget.

PR Newswire reported the Texas Facilities Commission’s North Austin Complex Phase One crossed the finish line late last month and stayed within the nine-figure budget. Along with the nine stories, the building also touts a central utility plant and a parking garage that holds 1,850 spaces.

When the impact of COVID-19 was still fresh, more than 300 construction workers were on site daily. They followed social distancing guidelines, which was said to be the key obstacle for the contractor, Vaughn Construction. Crews that were typically 15 people strong went down to three or four, and they worked in the same spot each day in an effort to slow the spread of the virus.

Production meetings that typically saw up to 100 people instead became outdoor sit-downs with individual teams. Any meetings with Texas Facilities Commission that were previously held face to face were traded in for virtual ones.

Vaughn also held virtual inspections after the State of Texas enforced stay-at-home directives for state workers. 

While the project did experience delays in equipment that was made internationally, that served as the only huge schedule change. An elevator factory in Mexico closed its doors so the wait time for 10 elevators subsequently went from 12 to 14 weeks to four months. The elevator contractor also provided additional crews to work on each elevator at the same time to speed up production time and lessened the delay to six weeks.

The City of Austin’s activities were also shut down which pushed back the building’s gas line’s ability to link with Austin’s services. To cope, a boiler was used to power on the HVAC system and keep the building’s temperature warm for those working indoors.

Roughly 1,500 workers from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission will work in the building starting this June.