United States Government Accountability Office

GAO Testimony 

Before the Subcommittee on the 

Legislative Branch, Committee on 

Appropriations, House of Representatives

CAPITOL VISITOR 

CENTER 

Update on Status of 

Project’s Schedule and Cost 

as of April 17, 2007 

Statement of Terrell G. Dorn, Director, 

Physical Infrastructure Issues 

For Release on Delivery

Expected at 1:30 p.m. EDT

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

The Web version of this testimony was reposted on April 30, 

2007, to reflect changes made to the text on the cover, and on 

pages 1 and 9. 

See the list of changes on page 10 of this testimony. 

 

GAO-07-755T 
Madam Chair and Members of the Subcommittee: 

I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to assist the Subcommittee in 

monitoring progress on the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) project. My 

remarks will focus on (1) the Architect of the Capitol’s (AOC) construction 

progress since the last CVC hearing on March 13, 2007; and (2) the 

project’s expected cost at completion and funding status.1

Today’s remarks are based on our review of schedules and financial 

reports for the CVC project and related records maintained by AOC and its 

construction management contractor, Gilbane Building Company; our 

observations on the progress of work at the CVC construction site; and our 

discussions with the CVC team (AOC and its major CVC contractors), 

AOC’s Chief Fire Marshal, and representatives from the U.S. Capitol 

Police. We also reviewed AOC’s construction management contractor’s 

periodic schedule assessments, potential change order log, and weekly 

reports on the progress of interior wall and floor stonework. In addition, 

we reviewed the contract modifications made as of April 11, 2007. 

At the last CVC hearing, we reported that our assessment of the project’s 

schedule and expected cost at completion was somewhat constrained 

because the CVC team was still analyzing the impact on the project’s 

schedule and cost of recently identified changes required for certain 

components of the fire protection and security systems. AOC completed 

its analysis of the schedule on April 10 and extended its estimate of the

project’s completion date by about 2 months, from March 2008 to June 

2008. However, as of April 11, when we cut off our work to meet the 

congressional deadline for submitting written testimony, AOC’s 

construction management contractor had not yet issued its analysis of the 

sequence 2 contractor’s March 2007 schedule. With very little time to 

assess AOC’s schedule analysis and without the construction management 

contractor’s analysis of the project’s March 2007 schedule, we could not

thoroughly assess AOC’s new scheduled project completion date or the 

project’s estimated cost at completion. Thus, we are basing our remarks 

on the information available to us, and on our analysis of that information, 

as of April 11, 2007, recognizing that our views could change as more 

information becomes available. 

 1

GAO, Capitol Visitor Center: Update on Status of Project’s Schedule and Cost As of 

March 13, 2007, GAO-07-601T (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 13, 2007). 

Page 1 GAO-07-755T 
Summary Since the March 13, 2007, CVC hearing, the CVC team has continued to 

move the project’s construction forward, but AOC has extended the 

project’s scheduled completion date by about 2 months, to June 2008,2

 and 

further delays are possible. This delay was attributable to problems with 

activities on the project’s critical path—the fire protection system.3

 During 

the past month, the CVC team has made progress on the project’s heating, 

ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system, interior wall stone and 

ceiling installation, and other interior and exterior construction work. 

AOC will be able to meet or come close to meeting its new scheduled 

project completion date only if the CVC team promptly makes significant 

improvements in its execution of the project and the project’s schedule. 

To date, AOC’s implementation of actions identified in its November 2006 

action plan has not been completely effective in curtailing additional 

schedule slippages. Furthermore, ongoing communication and 

coordination breakdowns between the contractors and AOC’s Chief Fire 

Marshal, as well as the large number of proposed change orders (over 450 

as of February 2007), continue to present risks to the project’s completion 

time frames and costs. For example, because of inadequate 

communication and coordination, some above-ceiling fire protection 

equipment has to be inspected, even though the ceilings are already in 

place, risking damage to ceilings and additional work if the inspections 

reveal deficiencies. Most of the new construction change order proposals 

that the project continues to generate each month are relatively small 

compared with the project’s total cost; however, a subcontractor has 

expressed concerns about the cumulative effect of these proposals on 

subcontractors’ cash flows and on the ability of subcontractors to 

complete their work on schedule. 

As we reported at the last CVC hearing, we previously estimated that the

total cost of the entire CVC project at completion would likely be about 

$592 million without an allowance for risks and uncertainties, and over 

$600 million with such an allowance. Because of the uncertainty over the 

project’s expected completion date, we have not updated these estimates. 

To date, about $538.4 million has been approved for obligation for CVC 

construction, including about $7.4 million in fiscal year 2007 

 2

This date does not allow time for installing artifacts in the exhibit gallery or preparing for 

operations. 

3

The critical path is the single longest path of activities through a project’s schedule. Each

day of delay in the critical path could delay the completion of the entire project. Nearcritical paths are the next longest paths through the project’s schedule. 

Page 2 GAO-07-755T 
appropriations. For fiscal year 2007, AOC has also received an additional 

appropriation of $36.4 million for the CVC project, which AOC has not 

received approval to obligate. AOC has not indicated how much of the 

additional money is needed for construction or operations. AOC has also 

requested $20 million in fiscal year 2008 CVC construction appropriations 

to cover remaining costs, and we estimate that AOC may need further 

appropriations in future fiscal years for construction changes and claims. 

According to AOC’s construction management contractor, in dollar terms, 

the overall CVC project is 93 percent complete, compared with 91 percent

reported complete at the March 13 CVC hearing. Eighteen of the CVC’s 23

air handling units were reportedly operating full time as of April 11, and

work has progressed in the East Front. As of April 11, AOC’s Chief Fire 

Marshal had essentially approved the shop drawings for all but one of the 

CVC project’s fire alarm system elements. 

Construction Is 

Progressing, but 

Issues Related to the 

Fire Protection 

System Have Delayed 

the Project’s 

Scheduled 

Completion by About 

2 Months 

Schedule Slippage Has 

Continued, and AOC Faces 

Challenges in Meeting the 

New Project Schedule 

The schedule for the CVC project’s critical path activity—fire alarm and 

smoke control system—has slipped about 2 months since the 

Subcommittee’s last CVC hearing, reportedly because several fire alarm 

system activities are taking longer than expected to complete.

Additionally, the subcontractor responsible for installing the fire alarm 

system has indicated that because of contractual issues affecting its 

receipt of payments and delays in work that must be done by other 

subcontractors before it can complete its work, it may not be able to 

continue work at the scheduled pace.

According to two indicators of construction progress we have been 

tracking—the completion dates for certain work activities and the pace of

wall stone installation—the project is not likely to be completed by June 

2008 unless the actions AOC is taking to improve its schedule performance 

are more effective in stopping schedule slippages: 

As shown in table 1, the sequence 2 contractor missed the completion 

dates for the majority of the work activities being tracked, although these 

dates have not been revised to be in line with AOC’s latest schedule 

analysis. Specifically, the contractor completed 6 of 17 activities on time 

Page 3 GAO-07-755T 
and completed 3 other activities late. AOC said that it did not expect the 

contractor to meet many of the scheduled completion dates because, in

AOC’s view, many of these dates were no longer realistic. According to 

AOC, it has revised the completion dates for the activities to be tracked for 

future CVC hearings to be in line with its schedule analysis. 

Table 1: Activities Being Tracked for the Capitol Visitor Center, March 13 through April 11, 2007 

Activity Location Scheduled completion Actual completion

Lobby paneling Visitor Auditorium 3/13/2007 2/28/2007

Cabinets, buffet and servery Food Service 3/15/2007 3/05/2007

Ceiling installation Senate Upper Level 3/16/2007 3/19/2007

Riser cable installation Life Safety 3/23/2007 4/4/2007

Wall stone area #1 East Front Principal 3/28/2007 3/23/2007

Floor stone West Lobby & Assembly 3/28/2007 3/23/2007

Riser cable termination Life Safety 3/30/2007 

Insulation testing cables Life Safety 3/30/2007 4/4/2007

Install fabric ceiling panels Exhibit Gallery 3/30/2007

Plaster ceiling East Front Ground 4/4/2007 

Testing and balancing AHU 

#2&17

Orientation Theaters 4/5/2007 3/07/2007

Check out wiring termination @ 

equipment 

Life Safety 4/6/2007 

Testing and balancing AHU 

#10/11/22 

Dining Room /Kitchen 4/6/2007 

Upholstered wall system Visitor Auditorium 4/10/2007 

Testing and balancing AHU #13 Auditorium Visitor Lobby 4/10/2007 

Frame VP bulkheads LOC Tunnel 4/11/2007 3/19/2007

Fabric ceiling panels Orientation Lobby 4/11/2007 

Source: AOC and its construction management and sequence 2 contractors. 

The project continues to experience delays in near-critical activities. 

Because AOC’s construction management contractor had not yet issued its 

schedule analysis for March 2007, we did not have complete information 

on the sequence 2 contractor’s performance in meeting scheduled 

completion dates for all of the project’s near-critical activities during the 

month. However, information provided at the CVC team’s weekly schedule 

meetings indicated that slippages continued to occur in a number of nearcritical activities, including the CVC’s HVAC system and East Front work. 

Page 4 GAO-07-755T 
Although AOC’s extension of the project’s scheduled completion date 

generally provides more time to complete the near-critical activities, 

significant additional delays in certain areas, such as ceiling installation, 

could delay the project’s overall completion date if they slow work on the 

critical path, such as fire alarm device installation. 

The pace of wall stone installation in the East Front has varied, first 

exceeding and then falling short of the expected average of 70 pieces of 

wall stone per day. For several weeks, the masons were installing an 

average of about 80 pieces of wall stone per day, but during the weeks of 

March 26 and April 2, they installed an average of 47 and about 55 pieces 

per day, respectively. The pace of installation slowed because the 

sequence 2 contractor has been installing steel to support the remaining 

wall stone. AOC expects the pace to pick up after the support steel is 

installed. Failure to maintain the stone installation schedule could further 

delay the installation of East Front fire alarm devices, since the ceilings 

that the devices hang from cannot be completed until the walls are 

installed. 

Project Continues to Face 

Risks and Uncertainties 

Problems in completing the installation, integration, operation, and testing 

of complex, major building systems, including the fire alarm, security, and 

HVAC systems, remain the most significant risk facing the project’s 

schedule. Delays continue, and technical problems remain a risk until 

these systems have been installed, integrated, and successfully tested. 

Moreover, problems with these systems may not be evident until their final 

acceptance testing. In addition, significant delays have occurred because 

of breakdowns in communication and coordination between AOC’s Chief 

Fire Marshal and the CVC team. This past month, for example, it was 

discovered that the sprinkler system was not inspected as required before

some ceilings were closed in, even though the Chief Fire Marshal and the 

CVC team were meeting at least once a week. Although this breakdown 

may not affect the project’s new June 2008 completion date, given the 

additional time AOC has included in the schedule for risks and 

uncertainties, some closed ceilings must be opened so that the sprinkler 

system can be inspected, and additional above-ceiling work may be 

needed if problems are found. Given the project’s history, the risk of 

additional communication and coordination breakdowns between AOC’s 

Chief Fire Marshal and the CVC team remains, and such breakdowns 

could affect the project’s overall completion date.

As of April 11, 18 of the CVC’s 23 air handling units were reportedly 

providing conditioned air to their designated spaces full time. The 

Page 5 GAO-07-755T 
remaining 5 units were reportedly ready to operate as soon as the initial 

control programming could be installed, spaces for the units could be 

prepared or cleaned, and in some cases, other work could be completed. 

All 23 units still require some work, such as initial or final air flow testing 

and balancing, connection to the fire alarm system, punch-list work, and 

commissioning.4

 The CVC team expects the HVAC system’s commissioning

to be completed by the fall of 2007, but some activities are taking longer 

than planned, and the achievability of this time frame is not certain. Risks 

include insufficient manpower, technical problems that could arise given

the sophistication of the system (e.g., stair pressurization), coordination 

problems among subcontractors, equipment damage due to excessive dirt 

or moisture from a lack of air flow in some nonoperational units, and 

slippages in space readiness. Although 18 units were operating full time, 

the spaces being served by only 9 units were reported to be completely 

ready and clean as of April 11. 

Another important risk, which we have consistently cited, is the number of 

proposed change orders during sequence 2, which has continued to grow 

even at this relatively late stage in the project. Proposed change orders 

that result in contract modifications for new work or rework could delay 

the project’s scheduled completion, as well as increase the project’s costs. 

Even though the dollar value of recent change proposals has been 

relatively small compared with the project’s total cost, the unabated 

increase in the number of change proposals is cause for concern. As of 

February 2007, there were over 450 such proposals. Over the past 6 

months AOC has settled an average of about 20 proposed change orders 

per month. At this rate, it would take almost 2 years, long after the 

project’s construction is supposed to be complete, to settle all of the 

change proposals, even if no new change proposals were issued. 

Furthermore, completing the project before reaching agreement on all the 

change proposals could require contractors to complete some work before 

agreeing on a final price for the work or on all contractual terms. As a 

result, some subcontractors might experience cash flow problems that 

could affect their financial stability. In addition, a subcontractor’s cash 

flow problems might delay progress on the project if the subcontractor 

was unable to provide the manpower needed to maintain the expected 

pace of construction. A major subcontractor responsible for installing the 

 4

Commissioning is a systematic process to ensure, by verification and documentation, that

all of a facility’s systems perform interactively as designed and intended to meet the 

owner’s operational needs. 

Page 6 GAO-07-755T 
fire alarm system recently expressed concerns to AOC about cash flow 

issues due to the large number of proposed change orders. Figure 1 

illustrates the steady increase in proposed change orders, together with 

AOC’s progress in settling them. 

Page 7 GAO-07-755T 
Figure 1: Proposed Change Orders Submitted for Sequence 2, March 2006 through 

February 2007

0

100

200

300

400

500

Number 

Source: AOC’s construction management contractor. 

Date

Outstanding PCOs

PCOs settled this month

March 31, 2006

April 30, 2006

May 31, 2006

June 30, 2006

July 31, 2006

August 31, 2006

September 31, 2006

October 31, 2006

November 30, 2006

December 31, 2006

February 28, 2007

January 31, 2007

Our estimate of the project’s cost at completion remains the same as we 

reported at the last CVC hearing—$592 million without provision for risks 

and uncertainties and over $600 million with such provision. As we 

previously reported, the $592 million estimate is rough, and we have not 

updated the $600 million estimate to reflect our assessment of the cost 

impact of risks and uncertainties. 

Cost Estimate 

Remains Unchanged, 

but Additional Funds 

Have Been Provided 

and More Are Likely 

to Be Needed To date, about $538.4 million has been approved for obligation for CVC 

construction, including about $7.4 million in fiscal year 2007 

appropriations. In fiscal year 2007, AOC has received an additional 

appropriated amount of $36.4 million for the CVC project, which AOC has 

not yet received approval to obligate. AOC has not indicated how much of 

the additional money is needed for construction or operations. AOC has 

also requested $20 million in fiscal year 2008 CVC construction 

appropriations to cover remaining costs. In addition to this requested 

Page 8 GAO-07-755T 
fiscal year 2008 funding, we estimate that AOC may need further 

appropriations in future fiscal years for construction changes and claims. 

Madam Chair, this completes my prepared statement. I would be pleased

to answer any questions that you or Members of the Subcommittee may 

have. 

For further information about this testimony, please contact Terrell Dorn 

at (202) 512-6923. Other key contributors to this testimony include Shirley

Abel, Lindsay Bach, Maria Edelstein, Elizabeth Eisenstadt, Jeanette 

Franzel, Jackie Hamilton, Bradley James, David Merrill, Joshua Ormond, 

and Bernard Ungar. 

Contacts and 

Acknowledgments 

Page 9 GAO-07-755T (545057) 
The incorrect version of this testimony was posted to the Web and the 

following changes were made to the text: 

1. On the Cover in the Addressee’s Block, “Before Congressional 

Committees was revised to read “Before the Subcommittee 

on the Legislative Branch, Committee on Appropriations, 

House of Representatives”.

2. On page 1:

• First line, “Madam Chair, Chairwoman, and Members of the 

Committees:” was revised to read “Madam Chair and 

Members of the Subcommittee:”. 

• First paragraph on line 1, “Committees” was revised to 

read “Subcommittee”.

• Second paragraph, on line 10, “to date.” was revised to 

read “as of April 11, 2007.”

• Third paragraph, on line 6 “last week and extended its 

estimate of the” was revised to read “on April 10 and 

extended its estimate of the”.

• Third paragraph, on line 9 “Committees’” was revised to 

read “congressional”.

3. On page 9 in the second paragraph, “Madam Chair and 

Chairwoman” was revised to read “Madam Chair and 

Members of the Subcommittee”.

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Page 10 GAO-07-755T 
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