The Georgia Department of Transportation intends to construct an approximately 38,850 square foot district headquarters administration building and a new materials testing laboratory building on their existing District-1 site located at 2505 Athens Highway, SE, Gainesville, GA 30503. It is envisioned the new District Office will be constructed where the old District Office once stood. The old District Office building was demolished approximately four years ago. The design of the new District-1 Administration Office will be based on a prototype design that was previously used to construct Administration offices in Jesup, Carterville, and Tifton, Georgia. Construction documents from those previous projects are being site adapted for this project and will be completed prior to the completion of the design for the new materials testing laboratory, enabling construction to begin on the district office earlier than the start of construction for the branch laboratory. It is envisioned the new materials testing laboratory building will encompass roughly 7,500 square feet of program space. It is envisioned that the facility site work will be accomplished in two phases. The first phase being the site related to the District-1 Administration building only so that construction can start sooner and the second phase being the rest of the facility including drive lanes, parking and the Laboratory area. The lease for the space the GDOT District-1 Office is currently housed in will not be renewed at the end of the current lease term. Therefore, a target date for the completion of construction of the new administration space has been set for August of 2027. This will allow GDOT time to relocate into the new building prior to the lease expiring. The Design Professional is currently completing programming for the project with design of the district offices beginning in December 2025. The release of the construction documents for the project will be phased. An early package to begin site work could be issued as early as May 2026 with construction of the new District Office Building starting at the completion of the site. Construction drawings for the Laboratory will be made available later in 2026 allowing work to begin on that building. The construction duration for the completion of both buildings is estimated to take no more than a total of 15 to 16 months. The expectation is the construction of both buildings would be completed not later than August 2027.
