VA must find millions to finish troubled Denver hospital

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By DAN ELLIOTT

DENVER (AP) — Construction crews are returning to work at the veterans hospital outside Denver after a last-minute deal with congressional leaders avoided a shutdown of the half-finished project.

But the really heavy lifting will be done 1,500 miles away in Washington.

The U.S. House agreed Thursday to raise the project's spending cap by $100 million, enough to continue work for three weeks. The Senate is expected to act Friday.

Congress and the Veterans Affairs Department still have to find up to $830 million to finish the vastly over-budget hospital and possibly scale it back.

FULL story at link.



Members of a construction crew work at the site of the new Veterans Administration hospital complex, in Aurora, Colo., Thursday May 21, 2015. The Veterans Affairs Department averted a costly construction shutdown at its half-finished hospital outside Denver on Thursday, but it still has to persuade an angry Congress to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars more to complete the bungled project. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/1047f8c50102458daa43792495ea9f69/va-must-find-millions-finish-troubled-denver-hospital

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

1. But start another freaking war.....

and the money will be there in seconds. Billions and billions, not just a measly 830 million. If they stopped making patients...left unsaid, but hopefully understood.

Proud Vet and patient of the VA.

[cstanleytech]

2. So what caused this? Did they underestimate the cost or is there something more

of a criminal nature at fault in which case has the ones at fault been brought up on charges?

[ibewlu606]

3. What?

The VA hospital at Lake Nona in Orlando is STILL not completely opened and hundreds of millions over budget. It was scheduled to open in 2012. We tried to warn the VA that using unskilled labor would result in a disaster.

[NobodyHere]

4. This is how contractors often work in my experience

They finish 75% of a project and then run out of money. Then they ask for more money to finish the project.

Then somehow they are able to win more contracts despite their track history.

[workinclasszero]

5. Hey the Republican war dogs have billions and billons

laying around to fund a huge ground invasion in Iraq part 2.

I'm sure they can bust off a few million for the VA hospital.

[TexasBushwhacker]

6. Lesson one - Don't start building

until plans are finished. Lesson 2 - Don't change the plans in the middle.