Construction on new judicial building in Columbus to begin in 2026

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - Construction on Columbus’ brand new judicial building got the green light in Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Contractors and architects gave council members an update on the budget and presented a visual for council members to see exactly what it will look like once it’s complete.

The judicial building will consist of eight floors with 18 courtrooms and underground parking. The building is expected to cost around 185 million dollars. Those funds come from bonds sold and SPLOST tax dollars.

“We’ve been re-engineering this thing because when COVID drove all the costs up, we were wildly over budget we were like $50 million, and we just couldn’t do that,” said Mayor Skip Henderson. “So they’ve made a lot of different adjustments and one is to continue to use the wings and the former parking underneath and that way it’s going to save the taxpayers and also a lot of money.”

Mayor Henderson says it will still take some time for the Columbus Government Center to be torn down, but construction on the judicial building is expected to begin in 2026.

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