October should bring a dramatic change to the site of the new Athens city hall as workers begin erecting the building’s steel frame and concrete walls, officials said.

After a slowdown in July due to rain, the concrete slab and footings for the building’s foundation at the corner of Marion and Hobbs streets has been completed.  Work on the concrete block walls will begin this week, said Athens Public Works Director James Rich. Structural steel for city hall’s walls is on order and, when it arrives, will take four to six weeks to install, Rich said.

On Monday, City Council members were expected to accept two major bids so work can proceed. Those bids include approximately $294,800 for electrical work, which includes the generator, from Limestone Building Group, and approximately $292,500 for mechanical work, which includes heating and cooling, from Premiere Structures, Rich said.

Mayor Ronnie Marks said the city hall project is on schedule and preparing to boom.

“We had a little setback with the wet weather ,but we are on target,” Marks said. “When the steel begins in a few weeks, they will begin construction of the physical building. It will be like an erector set going up. It will be ready to open, as scheduled, by the first quarter of 2015.”

City hall will be steel-framed, rather than wood, all the way to the rafters, the mayor said.

Marks term does not end until 2016, so he will be in the building for at least a couple of years.

The designers of the $2.2 million new city hall tried to blend form and function by planning a building that will last 100 years and that reflects the Greek Revival-style architecture of the Limestone County Courthouse and other downtown buildings. The 15,793-square-foot city hall is going up on the same site as the former city hall, which was demolished. City workers are working in the second floor of the Athens Utilities building on Wilkinson Street until the new city hall is finished.