COSTS RISE AT POLICE BUILDING PROBLEMS INCREASE CONSTRUCTION ESTIMATE.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

GLENDALE - Costs are continuing to rise at the city's new $57.6 million police headquarters, where construction had been delayed for years.

The City Council tonight will consider raising to $325,000 a contract for finishing the building - an amount that is more than double the original estimate. Delays in completing the station have already cost the city more than $1 million in extra architectural, construction and project management fees.

Police officials said the list of items left to finish grew because of problems they could not have anticipated.

``There were obstacles they didn't know about when they first went in because they couldn't see them,'' said construction coordinator Capt. Jim Swinford, citing problems in the air-conditioning ducts, plumbing and fire sprinklers.

The finishing work, originally estimated at $115,000, includes miscellaneous installations for the new 160,000-square-foot headquarters at 131 N. Isabel St.

Remaining touch-up work includes electrical modifications to accommodate the shredder and copier; installing additional security cameras to cover blind spots in a few locations inside; and putting in ergonomic keyboard trays at the new workstations throughout the building.

The original price was based on a list of jobs provided by the city, but when builders began the work, including going into walls and ceilings, they encountered new problems, Swinford said.

Also, several jobs were added to the list as change orders after the police department moved into the new facility about two months ago.

For example, not until people started manning the security stations did they realize they had blind spots not covered by cameras.

``Not until there were actual people in the building saying we can't see this or operate that, or we need some shelving here, did we realize we needed to give a change order to the contract,'' Swinford said.

The city will use contingency allowances established in the original budget to pay for the increase to the contract, Swinford said.

``The bottom line is we have to finish the building. We're inside already, but it's been running behind schedule for a long time,'' Mayor Bob Yousefian said. ``We have to be done with it so we can move on to the next project.''

The jail operation remains at the old station, but is expected to be transferred to the new building in September, Swinford said.

The original builder Ray Wilson Co. and the city had been wrangling for months over whether the facility - first scheduled for completion in May 2002 - was complete.

The city removed Ray Wilson from the job in January and the company sued the city for $20 million for work the builder claimed was added beyond contract specifications.

A motion filed by the city to dismiss the case is pending.

The city is considering mediation to reach some kind of resolution in a case that could prove to be very expensive should it go to court, City Attorney Scott Howard said.

Naush Boghossian, [phone]

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com