GAO Cites Capitol Facility's Costs, Delays

Architect of the Capitol Alan M. Hantman, right, briefs Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) earlier this month on the Capitol Visitor Center construction. (Frank Johnston -- The Washington Post)

Construction of the Capitol Visitor Center could cost as much as $558.6 million before it is completed in late 2006, which would represent a $185 million price increase and a nearly two-year delay in the opening date since work began in 2002, according to a new federal study.

The Government Accountability Office analysis, prepared for Congress this month and obtained by The Washington Post yesterday, found the current $454.4 million budget inadequate and a spring 2006 opening date unrealistic. The center will require at least $60.7 million more to finish and the price tag could increase by an additional $43.5 million because of risk and uncertainty surrounding construction, the GAO found.

It is the second time in as many years that the GAO has revised the cost estimate and completion date of the 580,000-square-foot underground facility being constructed on the Capitol's East Front. Last year lawmakers approved an additional $48 million sought by Architect of the Capitol Alan M. Hantman, who is overseeing the project, and were told that the center was unlikely to open before December 2005.

When work crews broke ground in 2002, the project was estimated to cost $373.5 million and open in January 2005. Project officials had previously described the current budget as $421.1 million, a figure that does not include $33.3 million for a special ventilation system.

Hantman last year blamed the delays and higher costs on bad weather, unforeseen field conditions and other factors largely beyond his control. But the GAO and some lawmakers say the fault for many of the recent setbacks lies with Hantman and what they describe as his poor managerial decisions.

"I just think it looks like it's gotten out of control from the architect's standpoint," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), chairman of the House Appropriations panel that approves money for the project.

Two e-mails and five telephone calls to Hantman's office and his spokesman Tom Fontana were not returned yesterday. A telephone message left with one of Hantman's relatives also was not returned. In an interview this month, Fontana said the project was going well considering the difficulty of building the facility while preserving historic structures, coping with weather problems, and ensuring that the Capitol remains open to the public and suitable for lawmakers to work in during construction.

"You can argue that we're not doing that poorly," Fontana said. ". . . Our contractors will be the first to tell you that . . . no work that they've done could ever compare to working three feet from the face of the Capitol. It's a unique environment, and you cannot compare it to any of the challenges that have occurred on other sites."

The three-level center, which will be able to handle about 4,000 visitors at a time, is intended to provide more convenience for tourists and better security for Congress. About a third of it, 170,000 square feet, will be devoted to Congress's needs in the form of new offices, secure briefing areas, television studios and a 450-seat congressional auditorium. The center will feature a Great Hall where visitors can obtain tickets for Capitol tours and information about Washington, a 600-seat cafeteria, gift shops and a 16,500-square-foot exhibition gallery.

These days construction equipment sprawls across the five-acre site, which consists of an emerging concrete-and-steel structure covered in a fine layer of dirt.

Complaints about the project's costs are not new, and the GAO briefing represents the latest evidence that, despite quarterly reports and congressional oversight, costs and delays are continuing to mount.

Among Hantman's errors, Kingston said, was a decision this summer to bring in Tulsa-based Manhattan Construction Co. to work on the center's interior spaces before Centex Construction Co. of Dallas had completed the shell of the facility.

Fontana has said the goal was to reduce delays by requiring contractors to overlap more in their work. But Kingston said Manhattan has been paid millions of dollars even though site conditions have made it impossible to get much done.

Kingston also faulted Hantman for failing to foresee the engineering complications of a tunnel linking the center to the Library of Congress and accepting unrealistic bid estimates. For instance, he said, Hantman should have warned Congress that the $70 million it had approved for new office space would be insufficient. Bids received this month put the figure at $85.3 million.