CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The project to correct construction mistakes on the Public Service Commission building in Charleston is proving to be a much larger task than anyone anticipated.
Crews are engaged in removing the brick from the building after it was determined they were not properly installed and ran the risk of collapsing. Now, crews are finding that was only the beginning of the original construction flaws.
“There were some strange building construction practices employed when this building went up,” said Susan Small, Spokesperson for the Public Service Commission. “One of the problems they are finding as they are taking off the brick is the walls don’t exactly run in straight lines.”
The project called for the removal of the brick and the re-installation using brick ties. However, it’s now been discovered the distance between the brick and the cinder block shell of the building varies greatly in different parts of the structure. The discovery has rendered the pre-ordered brick ties useless and forced the company to redesign its plan for repairs. Engineers are literally having to reconfigure plans a section at a time according to Small.. The ordeal has put the project behind.
“There are four or five weeks behind schedule,” said Small. “They’ve brought in multiple work crews and they’re working on different parts of the building all at the same time.”
The entire building is encased in a system of scaffolding and one lane of the side streets surrounding the structure along Charleston’s Quarrier Street are closed to traffic.
“We’re an eyesore I know,” Small added.
Completion of the repairs had been projected for November, but the date has now been pushed back to January. Small said it would be another month for a quality assurance consultant hired by the PSC to complete their work to insure the job is done properly.
“It’s a huge undertaking.,” she said. “They’re having to remove all of the brick and it’s a brick building.”