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AoC and GAO agree on final cost estimate of $621M for embattled Capital Visitor Center |
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By Karissa Marcum
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Posted: 09/26/07 08:19 PM [ET] |
The Architect of the Capitol (AoC) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) agreed on a final cost estimate for the Capitol Visitor Center Tuesday, with the AoC announcing it may seek $39 million in additional funds to complete the project.
“The fact that both GAO and the architect agree on this estimate gives me some confidence that it’s more realistic — it also makes it a number that I’m going to hold the architect to,” the chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee’s legislative branch panel, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), said.
If the funds are approved the center’s agreed-upon estimate would rise to $621 million. The CVC is 98 percent complete, with a substantial completion date of Nov. 15. It is scheduled to officially open in November 2008, AoC officials said at an oversight hearing for the project.
“While I’m disappointed that the AoC has failed to meet its previously stated costs, I am not surprised since the GAO has been testifying that the AOC’s CVC budget is unrealistic,” Wasserman Schultz said.
Originally, the ribbon was supposed to be cut by the end of 2004, and project costs were estimated at a total of $285 million.
After the substantial completion date, the fire marshal will inspect the CVC’s fire and life safety systems.
“Our objective is not to stop any of our testing, but to continue forward [with construction,]” AoC Fire Marshal Kenneth Lauziere said.
The new estimate includes “contingency amounts for delays, change orders and remaining uncertainties among other things related to the project’s fire alarm testing,” GAO’s director of infrastructure issues, Terrell Dorn, said.
There are about 344 outstanding change orders. Although they are being addressed, new change orders are identified each week, according to a CVC project executive, Bernard Ungar, who formerly worked at the GAO and analyzed the project.
Dorn said the number of open change orders concerns him. “Our concern is that if everything keeps slipping then you have to do them all at the same time,” he said.
Subcommittee member Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) expressed frustration with the delay, saying, “I don’t feel confident that we have a lesson learned here moving forward on the change orders.”
Although no delays were reported on the CVC project’s critical path, work has fallen behind schedule on 11 of 14 of the project’s near-critical paths. Those delays are attributed largely to problems in the House hearing room.
Dorn noted that since the last oversight meeting in July, work has advanced on the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system as well as the interior wall stone and ceiling instillation.
Wasserman Schultz called for quarterly reports showing how the AoC plans to use the remaining funds to complete the CVC. The subcommittee already requires monthly oversight hearings and weekly project reports.
Subcommittee members expressed concern that staff-led tours would not be allowed at the CVC when the acting Architect of the Capitol, Stephen Ayers, told the panel tours would be conducted by “highly trained” professional tour guides.
“It is absolutely essential that staff-guided tours be allowed to continue — that is a direct connection to our constituents. We don’t want this service bypassed,” Wasserman Schultz said, noting the matter ultimately would be decided by the House Administration Committee.
The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure also had a hearing Tuesday regarding the CVC. Members argued that the main hall in the CVC should be named Emancipation Hall, rather than Great Hall. Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.) urged the committee to move the bill, which has 227 co-sponsors, to the floor as a stand-alone bill. |
