Senator Dan Brown’s Legislative Column

brownOver the next two years there will be quite a few changes to the Missouri State Capitol. A 2-year, $26.89 million construction project officially begins on March 2 and is slated to be completed in December of 2020.

The Office of Administration says the project will address the deteriorating stonework on the Capitol’s facades, dome and drum. This is the first update to the Capitol since it was completed in 1917 and it will bring the Capitol’s structure back into serviceable condition, after more than 100 years of wear and tear.

To make construction possible and safe, the Capitol’s south lawn will be converted into a construction staging area, and the south circle drive will be closed to public traffic from March 2, 2018 until December 2020. By closing the South Circle Drive to traffic, the two traffic lanes on North Capitol Drive will merge into one lane, eliminating visitor parking around the building. However, handicapped spaces will remain. The Capitol will be surrounded by scaffolding, and there will be several cranes located around the Capitol to assist with the renovation process. All construction work will be staged from the South Lawn.

The Missouri Capitol Commission, which is charged by state law “to assure the future preservation, improvement, expansion, renovation, restoration and integrity of the Capitol and to preserve the historical significance of the Capitol,” is overseeing the construction.

During the 2014 legislative session, $40 million was appropriated for the renovation project as part of a bond package approved by the governor and the General Assembly.

The renovation contract was awarded to Chicago-based Bulley and Andrews Masonry Restoration. The will be working with 25 Missouri subcontractors, mainly from the mid-Missouri area. In total, there will be about 50-75 construction workers on the project.

The work is scheduled to be finished in early December of 2020, just in time for the governor’s inauguration in January of 2021.

For more information, visit the Missouri State Capitol Commission’s website at https://capitol.mo.gov/construction/.

As always, I encourage my constituents to contact me throughout the year with comments, questions or suggestions by calling my office at (573) 751-5713. To find more information about the bills I sponsor, visit www.senate.mo.gov/brown. Thank you for reading this and for your participation in state government.