With the District’s new baseball stadium having opened on time and within the estimated budget, it looks like the infamous Capitol Hill Visitor Center is getting jealous. But it looks like good news is on the way — the visitor center may finally open this year.

According to D.C. Metrocentric, the majority of the work on the long-delayed project is all but done, and the main contractor is expecting a formal opening in October or November of this year. Though we couldn’t get anyone working on the project to confirm this, the Weekly Construction Summary (watch out, it’s a .pdf) for March 31 to April 4 notes:

With the exception of punch-list work, all major public spaces in the CVC, like Emancipation Hall depicted here, are essentially complete. Fire alarm testing continues and is still on track to be completed this summer. An approximate three-month operational “ramp-up” period will then follow allowing for operational policies and procedures to be refined and tested before a formal opening to the public.

If the visitor center does finally open, it will do so after numerous delays and what seems like an open-ended budget. Originally slated to open in 2004, the visitor center’s initial $265 million cost ballooned over the years and is now thought to be closer to $600 million — just short of what the city paid for the baseball stadium. Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) once called it “a monument to government inefficiency, ineptitude and excessiveness.” Our only question is this — will they have Ben’s Chili Bowl in the cafeteria? Because if not, they may as well not even open the damn visitor center.

In other Capitol news, the Post is reporting that there’s a little dustup on the Hill over Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Ca.) plan to modernize the Capitol’s 18-year-old and grossly energy inefficient outdoor lighting system. The project to replace the 38 1,000-watt light bulbs that illuminate the Capitol dome is set to cost close to $700,000, and it could save taxpayers the $15,000 a year they currently pay in electricity bills. Republicans are balking at both the cost and the fact that the contract to install the new lights was given to a company in the district of Rep. Robert Brady (D-Pa.), the head of the committee that oversees such projects. Daniel P. Beard, the House’s chief administrative officer, claims that there was no favoritism in awarding the contract — the Philadelphia company just offered the best bid.

Finally, Roll Call is reporting that lawmakers are unlikely to retire the Hill’s coal-burning power plant, regardless of how useless it really is. Originally opened in 1910, the plant hasn’t actually produced any electricity since 1952 — it merely produces steam and chilled water for Hill office buildings, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Library of Congress. It has, though, produced plenty of sulfur dioxide, much to the chagrin of District residents. And while Speaker Pelosi has tried to move away from using the plant, representatives and senators from coal-producing states have been none-too-friendly to the idea.

Image taken from the Capitol Visitor Center site