DENVER — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced Tuesday that it will cost $1.73 billion to build a VA hospital in the Denver suburb of Aurora — more than five times its initial $328 million price tag.
The new cost estimate, which VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson revealed to Colorado lawmakers during an afternoon phone call, is the latest development in the project that has been in the works for more than a decade and has suffered huge cost overruns and delays, according to The Denver Post.
The contractor, Kiewit-Turner, stopped construction in December after a federal appeals board said the VA breached its agreement by insisting on a design that could not be built for the then-$600 million budget.
Work resumed under an interim contract after the VA enlisted the Army Corps of Engineers as project advisers.
"The VA couldn't lead starving troops to a chow hall when it comes to managing a construction project," U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, a Republican from Aurora, said Tuesday. "The VA's mismanagement of this project is beyond belief and brings into question the competence of their leadership at every level."
Coffman, a Marine Corps combat veteran, said he has introduced legislation to increase the $880 million cap on the hospital. The bill also would bar the VA from managing the project and allow the Corps of Engineers to finish the hospital.
VA officials said the new figure is based on research provided by the Corps of Engineers.
"The estimate includes the cost of construction, contingencies, and Army Corps of Engineers costs, as well as VA's cost to close out the original contract and continue construction until the Army Corps of Engineers assumes construction management duties," Gibson wrote in a letter to Congress.
The VA has said it would investigate possible misconduct or mismanagement in the project and has asked the Corps of Engineers to review the VA's overall handling of big projects.
On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller — a Florida Republican and chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs — called the Aurora project "the biggest construction failure in VA history."
He vowed that Congress would not authorize any more money for the project until the VA figures out a way to finish the hospital without interrupting current services to veterans. "The department owns this mess, and it's not fair to force taxpayers to bail out the bungling bureaucrats who created it," he said.
If completed, the 184-bed hospital will replace an old facility in Denver and include a traumatic brain-injury center, nursing care and other clinics.
