Road Guy
Well-known member
maybe someone here can tell me if this is normal for a hospital, but I find it really distributing how much this thing has cost and how much (it appears to me) that the contractor is really hosing the VA (our tax money). I don't know any hospitals that have cost a billion dollars? A BBBBillion?
I know it probably offers more services than just bedside care but a billion for a 184 bed hospital is pretty crazy, that's basically a small hospital compared to most private run hospitals..
Not saying our vets don't deserve the care, but there has got to be a better way than to over pay for this?
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_27693148/lawmakers-warn-colorado-va-hospital-project-could-shut
Congressional leaders are warning that the troubled Department of Veterans Affairs hospital project in Aurora could shut down again this month.
In a letter Tuesday to VA Secretary Robert McDonald, leaders of the House and Senate veterans affairs committees noted that the agency already has borrowed $56 million from other sources to keep the Aurora hospital under construction.
"Work on this project is estimated to cease on March 29, 2015, without additional funding," said the letter, signed by the chairmen and ranking members of both committees. "To date, you have provided Congress no report on the need for a cap increase, any analysis for the cost overruns or updates on efforts to hold properly accountable those responsible."
Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, called the Aurora hospital "the biggest construction failure in VA history" and warned that authorizing more money would be irresponsible "absent a VA plan to hold the employees responsible for this massive failure accountable."
On Wednesday, a unified Colorado delegation echoed that alarm and announced plans to visit the construction site.
"Our veterans have waited long enough for the facility they were promised and have earned. And workers at the site need certainty that construction won't be halted," said Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.
Republican Sen. Cory Gardner called it "critically important that the senators with oversight of the VA come to Colorado to see how veterans are being harmed by the terrible mismanagement of his project."
Construction of the hospital, estimated to be more than half complete, halted in December after the U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals upheld the right of contractor Kiewit-Turner to walk off the job.
A $234 million infusion got the project underway again, but that included $150 million to reimburse costs already incurred by the contractor.
At a congressional hearing last month, the VA estimated it would need to "reprogram" $200 million to $240 million in the coming weeks from other projects for the Aurora hospital.
The VA could not provide a final cost estimate but promised to provide that as soon as it gets one from the Army Corps of Engineers, which has taken over the management of the project.
The hospital, heralded as a state-of-the-art facility for Colorado's veterans, is now years behind schedule. Once budgeted for $600 million, the price tag now exceeds $1 billion.
One question looming over the Colorado project is how paying for its completion would affect VA projects in other states.
The letter from veterans affairs committee leaders called on McDonald to identify "any further reprogramming you may request, the specific facilities impacted and the amount of funding from each facility."
It also asked him to identify any delays associated with shifting money from other projects to Aurora.
I know it probably offers more services than just bedside care but a billion for a 184 bed hospital is pretty crazy, that's basically a small hospital compared to most private run hospitals..
Not saying our vets don't deserve the care, but there has got to be a better way than to over pay for this?
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_27693148/lawmakers-warn-colorado-va-hospital-project-could-shut
Congressional leaders are warning that the troubled Department of Veterans Affairs hospital project in Aurora could shut down again this month.
In a letter Tuesday to VA Secretary Robert McDonald, leaders of the House and Senate veterans affairs committees noted that the agency already has borrowed $56 million from other sources to keep the Aurora hospital under construction.
"Work on this project is estimated to cease on March 29, 2015, without additional funding," said the letter, signed by the chairmen and ranking members of both committees. "To date, you have provided Congress no report on the need for a cap increase, any analysis for the cost overruns or updates on efforts to hold properly accountable those responsible."
Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, called the Aurora hospital "the biggest construction failure in VA history" and warned that authorizing more money would be irresponsible "absent a VA plan to hold the employees responsible for this massive failure accountable."
On Wednesday, a unified Colorado delegation echoed that alarm and announced plans to visit the construction site.
"Our veterans have waited long enough for the facility they were promised and have earned. And workers at the site need certainty that construction won't be halted," said Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.
Republican Sen. Cory Gardner called it "critically important that the senators with oversight of the VA come to Colorado to see how veterans are being harmed by the terrible mismanagement of his project."
Construction of the hospital, estimated to be more than half complete, halted in December after the U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals upheld the right of contractor Kiewit-Turner to walk off the job.
A $234 million infusion got the project underway again, but that included $150 million to reimburse costs already incurred by the contractor.
At a congressional hearing last month, the VA estimated it would need to "reprogram" $200 million to $240 million in the coming weeks from other projects for the Aurora hospital.
The VA could not provide a final cost estimate but promised to provide that as soon as it gets one from the Army Corps of Engineers, which has taken over the management of the project.
The hospital, heralded as a state-of-the-art facility for Colorado's veterans, is now years behind schedule. Once budgeted for $600 million, the price tag now exceeds $1 billion.
One question looming over the Colorado project is how paying for its completion would affect VA projects in other states.
The letter from veterans affairs committee leaders called on McDonald to identify "any further reprogramming you may request, the specific facilities impacted and the amount of funding from each facility."
It also asked him to identify any delays associated with shifting money from other projects to Aurora.
