Blue material at the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is peeling off, less than two weeks after the more than $14 million renovation was completed.
Photos and videos showed thin flaps of what appears to be either blue paint or sealant floating on the pool’s surface.
This comes days after the National Park Service began combating a growth of algae that turned the pool green by pouring in containers of 12% hydrogen peroxide and physically removing it.
Eddie Wood, owner of the Virginia-based firm hired to renovate the pool, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, told CNN that videos and pictures of the floating material do not provide enough information “to tell exactly what that is.”
Members of the National Park Service …
more >
“There’s several things that we’ve got to address when we come back for maintenance, and anything like that will be addressed, if it’s a problem,” he said.
The historic, century-old pool was drained and repainted “American flag blue” at the request of President Trump, who announced the project’s completion on June 6. But just over a week later, an algae bloom covered the expected dark blue color of the pool, prompting the Park Service to step in to remove it.
But when the green algae — what the Interior Department called “residual” algae from flushing supply lines that sat dormant during construction — did not go away, the blue material also came to the surface.
The pool’s original engineering flaws, which include millions of gallons of water leaks, prompted the president’s plan to refurbish it.
Mr. Trump told reporters that contractors would sandblast, caulk and resurface the basin with an industrial-grade coating and repaint it. The color was intended to improve the reflection qualities of the pool’s gray concrete floor, according to the Park Service.
Aside from a paint job, the project included fixing leaks and reinforcing structural joints.
A tube is seen submerged in …
more >
The pool’s issues have plagued not only the Trump administration.
The Obama administration’s $34 million two-year restoration of the pool, intended to address ongoing algae blooms and structural issues, ultimately did not fix the problem but prompted Mr. Trump to lambast the former president’s failed project.
The latest renovation price tag was initially estimated at $1.8 million but soared up to $14.7 million, according to a contract summary of the Interior Department’s award to Atlantic Industrial Coatings.
The pool’s facelift is part of the president’s sweeping effort to “beautify” the nation’s capital, which includes a new ballroom in place of the White House’s East Wing, a massive arch near Arlington National Cemetery and a National Garden of American Heroes with 250 larger-than-life statues of prominent Americans.
