
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, October 4, 1993                   TAG: 9310040064
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

BUILDING COST RISES ANOTHER $6.6 MILLION

Virginia taxpayers will pay another $6.6 million for a state agency to move into its new home, raising the beleaguered project's entire cost to about $51 million, state records show.

The cost of renovating the building had risen to $43 million, partly due to an error in asbestos removal. That amount did not include the $6.6 million for the Virginia Department of Information Technology's move next year.

The agency's moving costs include buying and installing computer equipment in the renovated building and transferring data from the old computers to the new ones.

The figure also includes at least $1.5 million in extra rent for the department and other agencies that will move into the building.

The renovation is six months behind schedule and $9 million over budget. In March, dozens of workers were exposed to asbestos when they tore into parts of the building they thought had been cleaned of the cancer-causing fibers. Work stopped, and the state declared an asbestos emergency.

Gov. Douglas Wilder's administration is investigating the project. The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the investigative arm of the General Assembly, has begun an investigation into the project and underlying problems at the state Department of General Services.

For one-third the cost - $17 million - the state could have bought the Richmond Plaza building now leased by the computer agency. But state officials said that building was too expensive.

by CNB