BATON ROUGE - Construction crews at the Capitol are months into a years-long renovation and waterproofing project.

Each month, around two thousand tourists visit the Louisiana landmark. Tourist Counselor Tracy Tullier said the ongoing construction has impacted the tour routes, but not the demand for tours.

"Our tour has been a little bit shorter, but we do try to stretch it out and give more history of the building," she said.

On a different floor in the Capitol, lawmakers on the House Committee on Ways and Means met with the:
- Division of Administration
- Office of Facility Planning and Control
- Department of Education
- Department of Transportation and Development
- Office of Louisiana Highway Construction
- Louisiana Economic Development
- Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority
- Department of Military Affairs
- Department of Culture
- Recreation and Tourism
- And the Department of Public Safety and Corrections

The committee took a look at HB 2, a proposed bill outlining capital outlay projects throughout the state. The ongoing Capitol renovations were included in the bill.

"We've been having a lot of leaks on the inside, it's creating possible mold issues, buckling walls, even the steel structures are affected, starting to rust," House Representative Tony Bacala said.

The Division of Administration and Office of Facility, Planning and Control said the expected price tag for the work comes in at $113,000,000. The project got around $31,000,000 last year. This year, HB 2 would pay nearly $29,000,000 should lawmakers approve.

"The original project started 12 years ago, we had our first phase then, and then the second phase was completed about 5-6 years ago. This is the largest and third phase of the project. We have one more to go after this," Matthew Baker, the Director of the Office of Facility Planning and Control within the Division of Administration, said.

Baker said phase three is 5 percent complete.