Construction crews broke ground Monday on the Deschutes County Circuit Court expansion, which will usher in a new era of functionality for the courthouse.

Public officials, including county commissioners and Judge Wells Ashby, the court’s presiding judge, gathered at the courthouse at 1100 NW Bond St. in Bend to ceremoniously mark a long-awaited beginning.

The 52,000-square-foot expansion will add new courtrooms, judges’ chambers, sheriff’s office facilities, holding cells, a sally port, enclosed secure parking, administration offices and court clerks’ offices to the existing courthouse.

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The roughly $40 million project is expected to double the courthouse’s current size, Kim Katchur, a county spokesperson, said in a news release.

The county received $15 million during the 2023 legislative session for the expansion. The rest of the money has come from two other sources. The county budget committee allocated $5 million from the county’s pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act funds toward the project. County commissioners approved the remaining $20.5 million, which will be funded through debt financing in September.

Construction is scheduled to continue through the fall of 2025.