The $621 million Capitol Visitor Center has earned a provisional certificate of occupancy and is on target to open in December after years of delays and cost overruns, observers said last week.
Construction on the massive underground facility is “essentially complete,” Terrell Dorn, director of physical infrastructure issues with the Government Accountability Office, told a U.S. House panel. The fire marshal finished testing the fire alarm system and issued a temporary certificate of occupancy in July, Dorn said, and the architect of the Capitol “expects to have the project ready for opening on Dec. 2, 2008, as scheduled.”
The center’s projected price tag remains $621 million, Dorn told the appropriations subcommittee on the legislative branch, chaired by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. When ground was broken on the 580,000-square-foot project in 2002, the estimated cost was $265 million and it was expected to open in time for President Bush’s second inauguration.
“We believe this estimate is realistic and contains a sufficient allowance for contingencies, provided there are no unexpected delays,” Dorn said.
A good sign: Sharon Gang, spokeswoman for the center, moved into her office there Friday. More staff will move in this week.
“The phone works here,” Gang said. “The information desks are coming in. We’re getting ready to start training in the facility. It’s exciting for us.”
Not all news is good, however. Risks to the project’s schedule remain, Dorn said. And incomplete work threatens to hang up the completion of some sections of the center, including the cafeteria’s service lines, exit stairs and landscaping.
The project has earned the “boondoggle” label and was once described by Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., as a “monument to government inefficiency, ineptitude and excessiveness.” Extensive delays were caused in part by an ever-changing design, the complex fire-suppression system and holdups on stone delivery.
“It’s late; it’s overbudget,” said David Williams, vice president of policy for Citizens Against Government Waste. “You look at this hole in the ground and it’s just a great symbol for this city and this federal government.”
Situated on five acres to the Capitol’s east side, the Visitor Center will feature a Great Hall, two movie theaters, two gift shops, a museum, auditorium, 26 restrooms, 17 elevators and 550-seat cafeteria. About a third of the project is dedicated to office and meeting space for the House and Senate.
The Capitol welcomes 3 million-plus visitors every year.
The Dec. 2 opening coincides with the 145th anniversary of the placement of the Statue of Freedom on the Capitol dome.
