Construction on the Capitol Visitors Center has been hobbled by “a lack of management focus” and “a lack of accountability” and will come in at least 2 1/2 years behind schedule and more than $335 million over budget, a Government Accountability Office executive told a Senate hearing Wednesday.
Ground was broken on the center in 2002. It was supposed to be finished by January, 2005 and it was supposed to cost $265 million.
Thanks to a host of missed deadlines and mistakes, the center won’t be finished until early 2008 at the earliest and will cost at least $600 million, GAO Director Bernard L. Ungar told a hearing of a Senate subcommittee on Legislative Affairs for the Appropriations Committee.
“It’s really difficult for us to predict where the cost … is going to end up,” Ungar said. “There have been many, many problems that have come up and just lingered. If the team cannot get these problems taken care of, they’re going to be in a real world of hurt.”
The $600 million price tag is an increase from September, when Ungar estimated that the center would cost up to $592 million.
Most of the problems stem from the center’s air ducts and fire alarm systems, Ungar said.
Alan M. Hantman, the outgoing architect of the Capitol, acknowledged “issues,” with the center but said that he was convinced his agency’s new “action plan” would speed things up at the site.
The center is supposed to increase security for the Capitol by creating a major entrance away from the rotunda. It’s also supposed to be a museum dedicated to the seat of the world’s oldest democratic republic.
Chairman Wayne Allard, R-Colo., will lose control of the subcommittee when the Democrats take power in the Senate early next year.
Allard has held 15 hearings on the visitors center. He said Wednesday he hoped the Democrats will continue to hold regular hearings on the project.
Some delays
» 65 work days lost waiting for two elevators in the East Front.
» 66 work days lost waiting for for bronze doors because of “fabrication problems” of the supplier.
» 38 work days lost waiting to fix “ceiling problems”
» 138 work days lost waiting for light fixtures to be delivered
– Source:
Government Accountability Office
