Charlie Arlinghaus, the commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services, told the Fiscal Committee that testing on a large state construction project uncovered design errors and concrete issues that required work to stop on a major portion of the site.

"We did a lot of testing ... and found design errors and design flaws," Arlinghaus said, describing why the agency paused work on the "hole in the ground" portion of the project to redesign and remediate the problems. He said other parts of the project continued while consultants revised the design.

Arlinghaus told senators the item before the committee was largely a settlement from the insurance company for the engineers, and that the funds would be used "in large part to making everything right and making the design work." When asked about schedule, he said the project is "projecting completion of the project in '27," and that crews planned to restart with test piles "probably next week."

Senator Riddens asked for a concise status update because the project sits in a residential neighborhood in his district and had been paused; Arlinghaus reiterated that the stoppage was limited to a specific scope while the agency corrected the design and that the settlement would address many remediation costs.

The committee moved and approved the administrative-services item at tab 4.

Officials left several implementation details to ongoing work: Arlinghaus said the settlement "will go in large part to making everything right," but did not provide a line-item breakdown tied to the committee packet. He also described testing and remediation measures (test piles, revised pile design) rather than offering engineering specifications.

The committee approved the measure by voice vote.

The committee's next steps: construction testing is expected to resume with test piles, the agency projects completion in 2027, and the settlement will be applied toward redesign and remedial work. The agency and contractor will return as needed with further technical updates or budget adjustments.