A look inside the Oregon Capitol under construction

Construction workers and vehicles move around the Capitol. (Julia Shumway/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

For more than two years, most of the Oregon Capitol has been closed to the public as hundreds of construction workers retrofit the historic building to withstand earthquakes.

Lawmakers and visitors have heard, glimpsed and, at some points, smelled the effects of construction, as loud bangs and whirring noises interrupted debate in hearing rooms and on the House floor. Throughout the short legislative session this year, visitors could sometimes see workers and construction equipment through windows above a muddy pit that once served as an enclosed courtyard.

For the first time this week, the Capital Chronicle and other news outlets were allowed beyond the construction barriers to watch that work in progress. About 275 construction workers are preparing to finish laying the building’s new, deeper foundation, helped by more than 60 cement trucks traveling to the Capitol to lay the final cement flooring for the basement.

This area, below the former basement, will be covered with a concrete slab to form the building’s foundation.

The aim of the three-phase, $598 million project has been to better prepare the 86-year-old Capitol and its 47-year-old wings for earthquake activity, as well as bringing it in line with current accessibility standards.

To do that, workers dug below the current 160-million-pound building to install 160 base isolators – flexible discs that act similarly to a car’s suspension.

Without the base isolators, the whole building could move with the earth during an earthquake – potentially causing extensive damage and danger to people inside. With them, the Capitol is more likely to avoid damage should seismic activity occur on the Cascadia subduction zone, the 700-mile fault off the coast of Oregon, Washington and northern California.

“In the event of an earthquake, the building should theoretically stay in one spot and the earth around it will move 2 feet in any direction,” said Aaron Jones, a superintendent with Hoffman Construction Co. who led the tour.

Adding a new foundation below the base isolators meant construction workers needed to hold up the building while excavating. For months, the entire weight of the state Capitol has rested on 160 steel shoring towers.

Now, workers are filling in those towers with permanent concrete pillars and using torches to deconstruct the temporary steel towers so the 5 million pounds of steel that has supported the Capitol can be recycled on other projects.

Another aspect of keeping the Capitol safe from earthquakes is outside, where a deep moat will surround the building. It won’t be filled with water and crocodiles like a fantasy castle – in fact, visitors likely won’t have any idea the moat is there once it’s covered by sidewalks or landscaping.

The deep trench around the Capitol will be there to help protect the building from the earth moving around it.

Other changes reflect the need for more space in the Capitol since it was built in 1938. Workers are raising a ground-level courtyard up to the first floor to build two new hearing rooms below it. The basement will have a total of four new hearing rooms, as well as offices for the press and a restaurant.

Upstairs, construction requires preserving the original walls, floors and travertine tile that came with the building. And workers adjust as they go, as 86-year-old blueprints aren’t always accurate.

“The building’s built in 1938, and every time we open up a wall it doesn’t quite match the drawings we have from 1938,” Jones said.

Some fixtures serve as a time capsule for when halls closed to the public in 2022, including a directory that points visitors to the offices of then-Gov. Kate Brown and then-Secretary of State Shemia Fagan.

The state seal on the floor of the rotunda is covered with sheeting and flanked by machines that measure any movement. So far, the Capitol hasn’t shifted more than one-eighth of an inch.

The Capitol Accessibility, Maintenance and Safety project has cost the state $598 million since lawmakers approved its first of three phases in 2016. The first phase, which cost almost $60 million, added new exit stairs, accessible entrances on the northwest and northeast sides of the building and replaced failing mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.

The second phase, approved in 2020 and costing $73 million, made additional mechanical and electrical upgrades and added accessible entrances on the south side of the building. It also included seismic upgrades to the 1977 wings, hearing rooms and garage.

In 2022, lawmakers approved spending $375 million for seismic upgrades within the original 1938 Capitol. Almost a year later, they quietly approved an additional $90 million.

Jodie Jones, the project’s director and no relation to Aaron Jones, said in an email that the additional cost was because of inflationary pressures and because of additional safety work, including updating elevators and improving the fire alert system.

Jones said the construction project isn’t expected to cost more than currently budgeted. The project, including landscaping, is expected to continue until late 2026. The first four floors, which include the House and Senate chambers, rotunda, hearing rooms and offices for the governor, secretary of state and treasurer, are scheduled to reopen next spring, while the concourse level that includes the press room, some hearing rooms, offices and a cafeteria won’t reopen until late summer 2025.

“January 2025 will look very similar to the 2024 session with regards to open areas of the building,” Jones said.

Construction workers have done little inside the historic House and Senate chambers, though they are upgrading some wires and changing light fixtures to LEDs.

Outside, they’ve worked on strengthening support to the 23-foot-tall statue of the Oregon Pioneer, or Gold Man, who oversees the surrounding city.

The construction site includes a break room Hoffman refers to as its “GUTS” room, for “Get Us There Safe.” The company maintains that mental health is as important as physical safety, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the construction industry has one of the highest suicide rates.

The GUTS room includes arcade games, couches, TVs and large bulletin boards where workers posted pictures of family and goals as reminders of why they want to return safely from work.

“It’s better to come here than go to the bar,” Aaron Jones said.

The wall opposite those family photos features a pentaptych of the Capitol in spring, framed by cherry trees in bloom. That iconic landscape has been altered in recent years by construction barriers, cranes and scaffolding, but when the work is finished, the  view will be uninterrupted once more.

“It’s been here for almost 100 years, and I would expect this to last just as long,” Jones said. “This is a lasting legacy that will be here forever.”

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Correction: An earlier version of this article had the wrong date for approval of Phase II of construction. The Legislature approved that phase in 2020.

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