The Justice Department on Friday said the rush to complete President Donald Trump’s renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool led to ‘hasty and botched work’, shedding new light on the problems behind the Washington landmark’s $14 million facelift.
Renovation Issues
In delivering a sharp contradiction to weeks of claims from Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum that vandals destroyed the Reflecting Pool, D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro attributed the bungled installation to bad weather, testing failures and shipment setbacks.
Trump and Burgum, meanwhile, continue to blame alleged vandals for the deteriorating pool lining, algae blooms and green water that appeared after the renovation.
The new details come from the DOJ’s Friday filing announcing it was dropping the case against former Olympian David Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the landmark.
Renovation Timeline
Renovation on an expedited timeline began on May 5 by Virginia-based firm Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the sole contractor for the extensive project, according to the Justice Department filing.
The firm used two coating products — Rhino 406 and Pipeliner 5000 — in the renovation of the nearly 340,000-square-foot pool.
Construction was significantly stalled due to spring showers, which hindered the expedited installation process the Trump administration had hoped for, at one point requiring crews to pump out the rainwater to allow the coating to dry, according to the filing.
Crews continued to spray coats of the lining material, but the delays, largely due to weather, caught the attention of an employee with Brown Construction Services, a contractor charged with monitoring Atlantic Industrial Coatings’ progress.
Original reporting: WLKY Louisville — read the source article.
