Construction of the New General Assembly Building by John McGrath

Construction of the New General Assembly Building

John McGrath

March 23, 2018

          After many years of use by the  Virginia General Assembly, the General Assembly Building held its final session. The building, which was reported having mold and other hazards, will cost around $300 million dollars. Although there was a year of delay due to political disputes, thee governor eventually allowed the planning of the project in 2015, and construction was sped up in another political battle over a multimillion dollar bond package.

The project will involve relocating 140 VA legislators, their staff, and reallocation of their offices, committees rooms to the Pocahontas Building, which sits adjacent to the VA Capital. In addition to the Pocahontas Building, the meeting rooms in the underground annex of the capital will see increased use by the legislators of the General Assembly for committee meetings. The move to the Pocahontas Building began in  late February, and is set to finished by the end of the summer of 2018, so they can start drafting bills in the fall. In regards to the Old General Assembly building, Construction worker Matthew Kline says “We’re first going to gut the inside of the old building so it’s just the steel frame. Then we’re going to demolish the rest carefully so we don’t hit any other buildings. We’ve only built the frame of the new building, and we’re going to begin to start building the rest soon.”  Overall details of the new building have not been released yet, but the new building set to be finished construction in 2021.