The contractor hired to renovate the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool has stated that defective execution and design flaws were responsible for damage to the newly installed blue liner, according to documents reviewed by the New York Times. This account contrasts with repeated assertions by President Trump that vandals using knives or box cutters caused the deterioration of the pool’s liner.
Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the company awarded the renovation contract, attributed the damage to inadequate application of primer that failed to properly bond the liner’s layers in certain areas, as well as to incompatible chemical products specified in the contract design. The company indicated that the chemical sprayed on top generated more heat than the underlying material could withstand, causing blistering and separation. Atlantic stated it had not anticipated this reaction because combining the two products in this manner was uncommon.
The Justice Department had charged several individuals with vandalizing the pool in early July, but prosecutors began seeking to dismiss those cases on July 31. A federal court filing noted that information subsequently provided by the Interior Department indicated the damage resulted from flawed installation and the accelerated timeline to finish before the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations on July 4, rather than from vandalism.
Atlantic, a Virginia-based firm, received a $14.7 million no-bid contract to repaint and waterproof the pool’s concrete floor earlier this year. The renovation approach had not been previously tested and was designed in part by the general manager of one of Trump’s golf clubs. An Interior Department spokesperson attributed major vandalism to the damage while stating that Atlantic was contractually obligated to remedy the repairs. The White House spokesperson stated that the president was delivering on his promise to make Washington safe and beautiful. Trump acknowledged last month that the project was rushed and the contractor made mistakes, though he maintained that vandals were responsible for much of the damage, characterizing contractor errors as limited to a very small area.
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