A decade of delays from the VA

What's going on in Aurora, Colo.? A new Department of Veterans Affairs medical center, to be used by veterans in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming, was first approved for construction in 2004, and it's still not up. Groundbreaking for the new facility began in 2009 with completion planned for 2013.

When the builder contract was signed in 2010, the agreed-upon price was $582.8 million before the design was even completed. Since then, the contractor has complained about late payments, incomplete plans, change orders that went unprocessed for over a year, switching from a shared facility to a stand-alone hospital, relocation of the facility, and the discovery of an underground spring and a buried swimming pool.

No one was watching the architect, who had designed costly additions like curved walls. Medical-equipment planners weren't used, and instead the VA got input from others with limited experience. By January 2013, they were still haggling about trying to redesign the hospital to fit the actual budget.

At a recent meeting of the U.S. House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, which was to sort out all the details, the actual cost of the project still wasn't known. The guess at this point is that it will be more than $1 billion — double the original estimate and a decade after the decision was made to build the facility.

In December, work came to a halt when the construction company pulled its workers off the site after a federal board of contract appeals said the VA had breached the contract. Then came word that the Army Corps of Engineers was taking over management.

Now, a decade into the project, the estimated opening will be in 2017 — maybe.

Aurora isn't the only location with these problems.

Freddy Groves regrets that he cannot personally answer reader questions, but will incorporate them into his column whenever possible. Send email to [email protected]. (c) 2015 King Features Synd. Inc.