CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Workers are fixing a water problem at the state capitol.
The problem was discovered a couple of years ago when water started to get into the Journal Reading Room which is located underneath the northside steps.
State General Services Division Director John McHugh said they discovered the water was coming through because of a construction failure.
“The waterproofing, underneath the stairs, was not installed under all of the stairs when it was built in the 1930s. The second issue is that the waterproofing that was there was failing because of age,” McHugh said.
A contractor has since removed all of the stairs, which are made of Indiana Limestone, and has started to address the waterproofing issue.
McHugh, who also serves as Department of Administration deputy secretary, said crews will then begin to repair each step.
“We’re going to use historically accepted patch-repair methods on the stone. Also we’ll be replacing a number of the stair treads that can’t be repaired, some of them that are crack or broken. We are going to completely re-waterproof the underside of the concrete slab,” McHugh said.
State Department of Administration Secretary Mark Scott said the removal of the stair treads was an interesting process. They’ve been placed side by side on the northside lawn.
“They actually took each individual stair piece apart, numbered it, and they’re now going through the process of cleaning all of those, getting all of the old grout and that stuff off of it (before putting them back in place),” Scott said.
Interestingly, the steps on the southside of the capitol building don’t have the same problem. Scott said there was waterproofing underneath the whole area when the capitol was built. He doesn’t know why it wasn’t the same on the other side but he has a few guesses. He said maybe the project was running short on money or maybe it’s because there’s more moisture on the southside.
“The south stairs face the (Kanawha) river which has more potential moisture problems. I think they just spent more money doing the moisture control over on the south stairs than they did the north stairs,” Scott said.
The project is going to cost several millions of dollars to complete. Scott said he doesn’t yet have a final cost but it’s work that has to be done.
“The consequence of us not doing this is literally the concrete slab that was underneath the stairs would have given way and eventually the stairs would have given way,” Scott said.
The work is scheduled to be completed by November.