Ground has yet to be broken on the parking deck that will accompany the new county justice center in downtown Carrollton, though City Manager Casey Coleman said he anticipates work to begin within the next several weeks.

Delays to this point have largely been due to the difficult rerouting of utilities on the site.

Following the demolition of the neighboring Courtyard Square building more than a month ago, it became clear that a number of underground phone lines would need to be moved, as would water lines, sewer lines and power lines.

Add the problems with utilities to the recent rains, and it amounts to a delay of more than a month on the deck, which, at the same time, pushes back the ground breaking for the justice center itself. Work on the center is contingent upon work on the deck, as there would be very little parking for construction traffic otherwise.

“It’s always a little frustrating when you initially have a target date, but it’s just part of the construction process. There are delays,” Coleman said. “You have to allow some time for this, and we’ve worked through it.”

Coleman said that within the next two weeks, he expects grading to begin on the site, and several weeks after that, actual construction can begin. The deck is anticipated to be finished within approximately six months of the ground breaking.

In all, the city will have paid about $2.5 million for the deck by the time it’s finished, though the actual project costs are in excess of $3.4 million. Carroll County has agreed to pick up the tab for an additional 90 parking spaces in the deck, after the original amount of spaces came in too low.

At 319 spaces and five levels, the parking deck will be significantly larger than the deck near the Carrollton Cultural Arts Center on Alabama Street. Though both were designed by local architect Alan Bell, the new parking garage will feature an assortment of materials not seen in the previous park, most notably cast stone. The parapets will also differ from one to the other, as the new garage was designed to resemble the justice center.

“We had hoped to be out of the ground by now, but we had difficulties,” Coleman said. “Overall though, it’s been a good process so far, and we look forward to completing it.”