Topeka ? Visit the Capitol building and witness a $135 million work in progress.

Construction crews are burying a temporary steam pipe system on the south side, gutting the east wing and continuing to build the underground garage to the north.

Rickety office furniture is stacked in piles on the first floor, along with 22 historically inaccurate chandeliers that have been placed on boards of pink insulation.

Statehouse architect Barry Greis said he didn’t know where the lamps from the 1960s would end up, but they were not going back into the Senate, where they had hung from the ceiling along the side walkways of the chamber.

“I’ll check with the historical society and see if they might have a need. It’s not as if they don’t have another 30, 45 years of life in them,” he said.

Likewise, much the furniture that is being stored on the first floor will be sold or given away to nonprofit agencies and other units of government. Greis said it would be moved out of the way by the time the legislative session started.

The activity is part of the construction and restoration at the Capitol, which will continue through 2010. The 551-space garage is expected to be completed in April.

Workers pour concrete at the future site of a parking garage at the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka. The parking garage and the rest of the Phase 1 renovations at the Capitol are expected to be complete in April.

Crews several months ago moved Senate offices from the third and fourth floors of the east wing, but many of the offices will be moved back behind the Senate in time for the January legislative session.

Greis said legislative leaders didn’t want the restoration to interfere with the session.

“They want this to truly be a working Statehouse. We’ll be back in the Senate chamber for the session and then move out again,” he said.

A strand of barbed wire keeps visitors away from a construction area at the Kansas Statehouse.

The east wing is the oldest part of the Capitol, built from 1866 to 1873. Plans call for finishing the east wing by July 2005. The section is now shut off to the public, and there are huge trash chutes on the outside to help dispose of old materials.

Greis said the work, being done by J.E. Dunn Construction, was ahead of schedule. “We’ve had no major weather delays,” he said.

As the dirt flies around the Capitol, officials are dusting off the blueprints of two major state office buildings adjacent to the Statehouse — the Docking and Landon buildings. Both structures are in such disrepair that some have suggested renovating them would be more expensive than tearing them down and building new offices. A study to determine the cost of fixing the buildings is under way.

Renovations continue on the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka.

Stevenson Co. Inc. employee Mike Curtis, Burlingame, solders metal sheeting together at the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka.