If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again – and that’s what Guilford County government is doing after a colossal train wreck of a $20 million-plus project that came to a screeching halt on Thursday, March 2, due to “irreconcilable differences” between Samet Corporation, the construction company, and the county.

After that fiasco, there was a lot of finger pointing between the two – but there were no clear public statements detailing the reasons that the project was halted after just Phase 1 of three phases had been completed.

The project – which has been on the county’s to do list for years and years – involves demolishing the old jail in downtown Greensboro as well as the Otto Zenke Building – which is the Sheriff’s Department’s current headquarters – and building a new headquarters and parking lot.

On Wednesday, April 19, Guilford County put out notice that it’s now accepting “qualifications-based proposals for a Construction Manager at Risk for the completion of the Law Enforcement Administration (LE Admin) Building project,” with proposals due on Tuesday May 9.

Here’s the county’s official description of the scope of the project: “Construct a new Law Enforcement Administration (LE Admin) Office located at 401 W. Sycamore Street Greensboro, NC. The scope includes the demolition of the old jail and the construction of a new two-story building of approximately 40,000 square feet with basement storage and parking for the Sheriff’s Administrative Offices on the LE Admin site. This project will also include the demolition of the existing Sheriff’s Administrative Office Building on the adjacent lot (220 S. Eugene Street). Once the new building is occupied, it will also include construction of a surface parking lot on its site consisting of approximately 145 parking spaces.”

This will be an interesting bid process because, unlike other major county construction projects, the bidders on this one have already seen the numbers and plans from other companies, and they already know Samet’s bid that won the contract last time.

For the renewed process, the site walkthrough will be on Thursday, April 27 at 10 a.m., at 401 W. Sycamore St. in downtown Greensboro. The walkthrough will be led by Guilford County Facilities Senior Capital Projects Manager Andrew Huffman.

Questions about the project will be accepted by the county until 2 p.m. on Monday, May 1.

Anyone seeking more information, should visit Guilford County’s Vendor Self Service automated bidding system at https://guilfordcountync.munisselfservice.com.