FAIRFIELD, Calif.—The Superior Court of California, County of Solano is getting a new courthouse—the Solano Hall of Justice in Fairfield—with an estimated building completion date of December 2030.
The Solano Hall of Justice project plans for a new, 12-courtroom courthouse spanning 141,000 feet and will include a secured parking area for judicial officers. A 2.94 acre-site will be acquired for the project and it will replace the court’s operations and courtrooms in the existing, county-owned Hall of Justice, according to the Superior Court of California, County of Solano. The Design-Build delivery method will be used for the project.
The project is currently in the “Acquisition” phase and is estimated to begin in April 2026 and complete in March 2027.
Funding for the project was approved in California Governor Gavin Newsom’s 2022 budget, which allocated $1.2 billion in new funding for the state’s judicial branch, that in part, expanded access to justice and included building the Solano Hall of Justice in Fairfield, Calif.
The project has a list of improvements for the superior court in order to enhance service to the public, including providing: An accessible, safe, efficient and modern, full-service space in Fairfield, Calif; improving security, overcrowding, operational efficiency and customer service; adequate space for greater functionality than in current conditions, such as safe/secure internal circulation maintaining separate zones for the public, staff, and in-custodies; secure, dedicated in-custody sally port to the courthouse and secure in-custody holding facilities adequate in number, adequate visitor security screening and queuing in the entrance, secure and nonsecure attorney-client interview rooms, adequately sized public waiting areas, adequate space for self-help area, ADA-accessible spaces, adequate jury deliberation and jury assembly spaces with capacity for typical jury pools and a facility with dependable physical infrastructure.
Also on the checklist are: Removing the existing Hall of Justice from court service, which is rated as a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) P-154 Very-High-Risk, seismically deficient building; and avoiding substantial deferred maintenance and security system refresh expenditures.
“This project is in the Immediate Need priority group, and consequently, is one of the highest priority trial court capital-outlay projects for the judicial branch,” according to the Superior Court of California County of Solano.
In Solano County, there are four superior court facilities ranging from three in Fairfield to one in Vallejo. The Hall of Justice is the superior court’s largest facility; formerly, it was a 1920s high school with an addition from the 1970s. Overall, the current building is “out of compliance with regulatory safety, seismic, accessibility codes, and Judicial Council space standards,” according to The Superior Court of California, County of Solano.
Learn more about the project here.
