New federal courthouse project faces more delays.

Los Angeles will have to wait even longer for its oft-delayed new federal courthouse building.

The General Services Administration quietly canceled the bidding process on the project--initially approved in 2001 and targeted for completion this year--when one of two final bidders withdrew from the competition recently. Federal rules call for at least two bidders.

That means the federal courthouse, which handles more people than any other in the country, will have to continue operating primarily in a 1930s building. The courthouse is overcrowded and has an electrical system so antiquated that it can't support modern-day trial presentations.

The new courthouse has been the number one priority for construction at the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts since 2000. But now, some sources believe, the project could be pushed back an additional 10 years.

The new delay is "a tragedy," said Senior Judge Dickran Tevrizian, who attended the first planning meetings for the new courthouse back in 1999.

The GSA admitted the bidding will have to start over and the project could be cut into smaller parcels.

"We're looking at ways of packaging it to attract adequate competition," said Mary Filippini, spokesperson for GSA.

However, Filippini believes the goal for the completion, now set for 2012, should be met. It should only take about six months for another request for proposals to be issued, she said.

The parcel of land for the courthouse is the block between First and Second streets and Broadway and Hill streets, adjacent to the Grand Avenue project.

The Los Angeles project has topped years. The order is determined by a computerized formula designed to eliminate favoritism by taking into account the number of filings, caseload per judge and overall building safety.

From the outset, however, the process has been beset by mushrooming construction costs, budget appropriation shortfalls and the relative lack of experienced builders amid a downtown building boom.

Strict bonding requirements made the process harder. The GSA mandated that each bidder be able to post bond for the entire project. As the project's costs rose, that total rose to $400 million. Only two bidders, both consortiums, came forward.

One consortium, made up of Clark Construction Group LLC and PCL Constructors Inc., pulled out of the bidding earlier this year when PCL was awarded a large project that prevented it from moving forward in the L.A. courthouse bidding. After that group pulled out, Tutor-Saliba Corp. and Perini Corp., the second group of bidders, was notified in a March 30 letter from the GSA that the procurement process had been canceled and that they should immediately destroy all request-for-proposal documents or return them. The GSA's Filipini said her organization requests bidders to destroy federal building plans as a post-Oklahoma City bombing security precaution.

"This could mean it's 10 more years," said Chris Martin, whose AC Martin Partners was part of the Tutor Group. He was also president of the L.A. Chamber of Commerce in 2005. "It's $500 million in construction but could mean $100 million in lost commerce in judicial issues that happen in these courtrooms. The Western U.S. needs these federal court facilities. It's the highest priority in general service procurement and they just announce they're stopping with no discussion."

Martin had been working on his company's bid for four years and said his group had spent about $250,000 in the process.

Richard Heim, regional president of Clark Construction, said he will bid for the project if it comes around again and blamed his group's dropping out on earlier government delays.

"The federal courthouse in L.A. was a target job for us for a number of years and we tracked it. ... The GSA elected to do some redesign on the project and during that time one of my key partners got another significant project and was no longer able to participate in the competition with me."

But it appears that the antiquated, overcrowded and, by some accounts, unsafe courthouse be left as is a while longer.

"Back in Washington, I don't think they realize we're the biggest impact player in the judicial system. We have more cases and more people to take care of," Tevrizian said.

The Central District of California covers between 18 and 20 million people and serves seven counties with just 28 judges. "We're very productive," Tevrizian said.

The current courthouse is split between the historic building on Spring Street, built in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration, and the adjacent Roybal Federal Building, which houses the bankruptcy proceedings.

"The building on Spring is antiquated," Tevrizian said. "There's earthquake retrofitting that has to take place, there are health concerns such as air, asbestos abatement, lead. There are security issues; the setback requirements have changed since Oklahoma City (in 1995)."