While work in several areas has moved forward since the Subcommittee’s September 15 CVC hearing, additional delays have been encountered, and project schedules have been revised but not fully reviewed or evaluated. Construction work has continued on the CVC, the East Front, the plaza, the House and Senate expansion spaces, and the utility tunnel since the Subcommittee’s September 15 hearing. For example, wall stone installation work has continued in the great hall, the orientation theaters, and the auditorium, and the number of stone masons working in the interior of the CVC has increased since mid August. Some stone masons worked on weekends between mid August and mid September. In addition, excavation, concrete, and piping work in the utility tunnel has been proceeding, as has mechanical, electrical, and plumbing work in the CVC. On the other hand, between the Subcommittee’s September 15 hearing and October 12, the sequence 2 contractor completed work on only 3 of the 11 activities we and AOC have been tracking for the Subcommittee. None of these activities had been completed by the target dates shown in the contractor’s April 2005 baseline schedule, although one was completed by the date shown in the contractor’s June 2005 schedule. (See app. I.) Furthermore, additional delays have occurred on interior and exterior stonework installation, the East Front, the utility tunnel, and the House connector tunnel. For example, according to AOC’s construction management contractor, during September, the sequence 2 contractor gained only 12 workdays on critical interior stonework and 10 workdays on the utility tunnel out of a possible 21 days of work. According to the construction management contractor, stonework has been delayed due a shortage of stone masons, a lack of critical pieces of stone, the need to do remedial concrete work in the orientation theaters and along the exterior concrete walls and interior concrete floors of the auditorium, and delays in getting shop drawings for stonework on the East Front. According to AOC’s construction management contractor, excavation work on First Street for the utility tunnel has been delayed due to unforeseen conditions and the need to stop work for the former Chief Justice’s funeral at the Supreme Court, and unforeseen conditions have also delayed work on the House connector tunnel. During September, the sequence 2 contractor changed the manner in which the HVAC and Fire Protection system’s commissioning work and acceptance testing would be done, with the potential result of a time savings. The changes largely involved re-sequencing work and doing work concurrently that the August schedule showed would be done sequentially. According to the contractor’s revised schedule, these changes will result in an improvement of over 60 workdays and bring the scheduled completion date for this work to December 11, 2006, compared to the February 26, 2007, date shown in the August schedule. However, these changes have not yet been fully evaluated. AOC and its construction management contractor are reviewing the changes, as is AOC’s Chief Fire Marshal. AOC and its construction management contractor believe it will take about 30 to 60 days to complete their assessments, and AOC’s Chief Fire Marshal believes that he may have his evaluation done before the end of October. Altogether, the construction management contractor has identified a total of 11 critical activity paths in the September schedule that will extend the base project’s completion date beyond AOC’s September 15, 2006, target date if expected lost time cannot be recovered or further delays cannot be prevented. In addition to the critical paths related to the HVAC system and the fire alarm system that are discussed above, examples of other base project critical path activities included in the contractor’s September schedule are utility tunnel and piping, stonework in the East Front, interior wall stone in such areas as the orientation theaters and atria, stonework in the auditorium and exhibit gallery, millwork and casework installation in the orientation theaters and atria, fabrication and installation of bronze doors, and penthouse mechanical work. Of the 11 critical activity paths in the September schedule, completion dates for 4 paths improved compared to the August schedule, but completion dates for the other 7 paths, including all of the stonework paths, slipped. For example, according to the construction management contractor, the September schedule shows all of the work associated with the fire alarm testing critical path being completed by November 22, 2006, an improvement over the August schedule’s date of February 26, 2007; the September schedule also shows all of the work associated with the interior auditorium wall stone critical path being completed by December 12, 2005, more than a month later than the August schedule’s date of November 2, 2005. The sequence 2 contractor’s September 2005 schedule indicates that construction work on the base CVC will be essentially complete by September 15, 2006, and that remaining work between that date and December 11, 2006, will largely consist of testing, balancing, and commissioning the HVAC system; testing and inspecting the fire protection system; punch-list work; and preparing for operations. Most of the activities discussed above are among the activities we previously identified as likely having optimistic durations, suggesting that it could take even longer to complete them than shown in the project schedule. These activities served as the basis for the recommendation we made to AOC during the Subcommittee’s September 15 hearing that AOC rigorously evaluate the durations for the activities shown in the project schedule. According to AOC, it has not yet completed this evaluation. Moreover, we continue to believe that having such a large number of critical activity paths complicates project management and makes on-time completion more difficult. AOC’s construction management contractor has continued to integrate various component schedules into the CVC construction and summary schedules as they have been completed, and the integrated schedule contains about 6,500 activities. Consequently, AOC now has a summary schedule that integrates the completion of CVC and House and Senate expansion space construction with preparations necessary for opening the CVC to the public. This integrated summary schedule shows CVC construction as well as the activities necessary for opening the CVC to the public being completed by mid December 2006, the time AOC proposed last month for opening the CVC to the public. That is, AOC expects construction work on the base CVC project to be substantially completed by September 15, 2006, but expects such work as HVAC commissioning, fire protection system testing and inspection, punch-list work, and operations preparations work to be ongoing until December 15, 2006. According to AOC’s sequence 2 and construction management contractors, it is not yet clear whether expansion space construction will have progressed to the point where temporary work for fire safety once believed to be necessary to open the CVC to the public will no longer have to be done. They said that they are still analyzing the work associated with those areas where the base project interfaces with the expansion spaces and whether and how the need for temporary work for fire safety can be minimized or eliminated. Although the sequence 2 contractor has taken, plans to take, and is considering various actions to recover lost time and prevent or mitigate further delays, we continue to believe that the contractor will have difficulty completing construction before early to mid 2007. Our reasons for concern include the uncertainty associated with the September changes in the HVAC commissioning and fire protection system schedules that have not yet been fully reviewed, the schedule slippages to date, optimistic durations for a number of activities based on the views of CVC team members, the large number of activity paths that are critical, and risks and uncertainties that continue to face the project. AOC’s construction management contractor also points out that further delays could result from congressional requests to stop work due to high noise levels in the East Front and delays in completing CVC ceiling work necessary for the HVAC and fire protection systems, although the CVC team is considering ways to mitigate these risks. We also note that the Chief Fire Marshal has not yet approved the construction drawings for the fire protection system or the schedule for the system’s commissioning and testing. In addition to our views on the project’s September schedule changes and progress, we would also like to briefly discuss several schedule-related issues about which we have previously raised questions or issues or made recommendations to AOC. We have been recommending for some time that AOC improve schedule management and analyze and document delays and the reasons and responsibilities for them on an ongoing basis—at least monthly. We have noted considerable improvements in the CVC team’s schedule analysis and management since the arrival of the construction management contractor’s project control engineer several months ago. Shortly after his arrival, the scope and depth of schedule analysis and management improved significantly, and AOC’s construction management contractor modified its monitoring process to capture information on delays. However, we continue to be concerned about AOC’s not having adequate information systematically compiled and analyzed to fully evaluate the causes and potential responsibilities for delays on an ongoing basis. In our view, not having this type of information on an ongoing basis is likely to create problems later on should disputes arise and knowledgeable staff leave. Also, in this regard, we have previously expressed concerns about the need for the project schedule to show resources to be applied to meet schedule dates. While the sequence 2 contractor has shown proposed resource levels for many activities, proposed resource levels have not been included for many of the new activities added to the project schedule. The lack of such information can complicate the analysis of delays, including their causes and costs. AOC agreed that these issues are important and said it would discuss them with its construction management contractor. We have previously recommended that AOC develop risk mitigation plans to address risks and uncertainties facing the project. In July, AOC asked one of its consultants—MBP—to assist it in identifying risks and developing plans to address those risks. AOC has identified over 50 risks facing the project and established a process for addressing them. AOC has begun to develop and implement plans for managing these risks.