The Trump administration will not seek new bids to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Sunday, as the project faces questions over damage, cost and no-bid contracts.
Burgum told CNN the administration will use the same contractor for the repairs, saying the company did a “fantastic job.”
The pool was drained this spring as part of a project tied to the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration. After the work was done, algae spread in the water and pieces of the new coating appeared to peel off the bottom.
Burgum defended the work in an interview with ABC News, saying the pool was fixed “in the sense that it’s no longer leaking 45,000 gallons a day.” He said less than one-tenth of 1% of the industrial liner was damaged and that the remaining work involves fixing damage he attributed to vandals.
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President Donald Trump has said vandals cut a 350-foot gash into the liner. Burgum described the damage as multiple cuts adding up to that figure. He said the pool will have to be at least partially drained in the coming week to finish repairs.
Authorities have arrested more than a half-dozen people in connection with Reflecting Pool damage, including former Olympian David Hearn, who was indicted last week on a felony property-destruction charge. Hearn’s lawyers called the charges “outrageous.”
The renovations have cost more than $16 million, about $4 million more than the original no-bid contract, according to ABC News. The Associated Press reported that Green Water Solutions received a $1.7 million contract for a water-purification system, while Atlantic Industrial Coatings was awarded $14.7 million to repaint and waterproof the pool’s concrete floor.
Democratic lawmakers are now investigating the project.
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