Orlando VA Medical Center is more than 95 percent complete

VA Medical Center nearly done but disputes continue
Orlando Sentinel
By Naseem S. Miller
December 27, 2014

"Lawmakers say that the House Veterans' Affairs committee will have hearings on VA hospital construction early next year."

VA Medical Center -- Ongoing construction at Lake Nona, on Thursday, September 5, 2013.
(Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda, Orlando Sentinel)

After years of squabbles and delays, the long-awaited Orlando VA Medical Center is more than 95 percent complete.

If all goes as planned, the Department of Veterans Affairs will take it over in January, and the hospital will be fully operational by summer.

The $665 million, 1.2 million-square-foot facility at Medical City in Lake Nona is expected to have more than 3,500 employees and serve as many as 115,000 veterans every year.

It is also two years behind schedule and, by some estimates, more than $200 million over budget.

The hospital's groundbreaking was in October 2008, and it was expected to be finished in October 2012. Since then, deadlines have been broken as the VA and its contractor, Brasfield & Gorrie, continue to blame each other for the delays.

There have been "numerous issues that surrounded the construction delays," including problems with "contractor manpower shortages and poor management of resources," VA officials said in a statement.
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