|
CVC Sept. 2008 opening date still in doubt, warns panel |
|
By Kelly McCormack
|
|
Posted: 06/28/07 07:31 PM [ET] |
Appropriators told the Architect of the Capitol (AoC) yesterday at an oversight hearing that they remain skeptical the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) will be completed on the AoC’s revised timetable, even though the AoC did not announce further delays.
“What’s frustrating is we’re celebrating a lack of slippage in the schedule. I continue to have a lack of confidence,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), noting that 13 of 17 near-critical path projects, which could eventually postpone the completion date, have fallen behind schedule.
Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee’s legislative branch panel, has been closely monitoring the visitor center’s progress since taking on oversight of the project.
The AoC estimates that the $600 million center will be completed this fall and ready for fire marshal inspections. It is currently 95 percent complete, and its doors should be opening to the public in September 2008, according to AoC officials.
Originally, the ribbon was supposed to be cut by the end of 2004, and the cost was set at around $285 million. But changes in the scope of the project and security concerns have led to delays and ballooning costs.
Bernard Ungar, a CVC project executive who formerly worked at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and analyzed the project, noted that the last 5 percent of the CVC project is “very, very risky system work” that will be difficult to complete.
“We’re not quite where I’d like to be at, but we’re making progress,” Ungar said.
Wasserman Schultz told Ungar: “We’re hoping you’ll have the magic touch.”
However, she remained uncertain that the AoC’s current timetable would not slip again.
“Sept. 22, 2008 is not a universally shared opening date by GAO or contractors,” she said. “How likely is Sept. 22, or are we looking at a month later than that?”
Stephen Ayers, acting Architect of the Capitol, told the panel that there were no days lost.
“None of the [goals] that were not met will affect our end date,” said Ayers, noting that September 2008 is still a legitimate date “if we stay on track.”
The scheduled opening is “doable,” agreed Terrell Dorn, GAO director of infrastructure issues. “It’s all doable with [a] contingent.”
There have also been a large number of project change orders that could delay the opening date: 451 change orders arrived in May, up from 376 in March.
“We need to resolve these change orders … they’re going to catch up,” said Dorn. “If we don’t address fire alarm issues, construction is going to go all sorts of ways we don’t want it to go.”
Since the last CVC oversight hearing in April, progress has been made on the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, as well as on interior wall stone and ceiling installation. But Dorn admitted that further delays of some near-critical path initiatives could ultimately hurt the project’s completion date.
“Although the CVC team has avoided further delays in the project’s critical path — i.e., the work on the fire alarm system — activities on most of the project’s near-critical paths have fallen behind schedule, and further delays are possible,” Dorn added. “Problems have occurred in such near-critical activities as the ceiling close-ins in the upper level security and orientation lobbies and elements of the House and Senate expansion spaces, and a number of risks to the project’s schedule remain.”
|
