Downtown courthouse report

TYLER – The Smith County Commissioners Court received an update Tuesday on the Courthouse Construction Project. Stephen Flournoy, project executive for Hoar Construction, said there is an average of 250-plus workers on the construction site every day. Of all the subcontractors on the job, about 60 percent are East Texas trade partners. Subcontractors that are not from the area are living here for months at a time, contributing to the local economy, he added.

Major milestones that have recently been completed on the project include tying in the underground tunnel from the jail to the new courthouse and backfilling the 30-foot-deep hole. They also got power and natural gas turned on to the building. Masonry of the exterior is in progress, going up over the green water-proofing material, as well as windows going in, he said.

They are close to turning on the air handling units on the bottom three floors, and in about 30 days they will be ready to turn on the air handlers on the fourth through seventh floors.

Bradley Barr, senior superintendent for Hoar Construction, said getting the gas meter set was a huge milestone. He also pointed out decorative pieces going up, including a mosaic of the old 1910 courthouse and a mosaic of Lady Justice.

About a week ago, workers began fabricating the large dome that will go on top of the courthouse. The reason they are building the dome on the ground instead of on top of the courthouse is because of safety of the workers and quality of the project, he said. The dome has been a culmination of several months of working out logistics. A 900-ton mobile crane, one of only two in the United States, will be used to lift the nearly 66,400-pound dome, Barr said. Installation is planned for late March or early April but will depend on wind conditions. With all the weather days the area has seen throughout the duration of the project, including the ice storm last month, only nine bad weather days were added. To date, they have had 135 potential weather days but have only claimed 86, Flournoy said, adding that they work diligently every day to make up for those days missed for weather.

Here is a timeline of the voter-approved Smith County Courthouse and Parking Garage Bond Project. Phase 1 of the project was the Smith County Parking Garage, which was completed in November 2024. Phase 2 is the construction of the new courthouse, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. Phase 3, which is the demolition of the current courthouse and adding a green space from the new courthouse to Broadway Avenue, will begin in January 2027, and is expected to be completed in the summer of 2027.