Trump’s Rapid Reflecting Pool “Repair” Fails

The government spent $15 million on renovating the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. However, the “renovation” process has only created a huge crisis. President Donald Trump first announced his plans to refurbish the pool in April, claiming that it would only take a few weeks and cost $1.8 million of tax revenue. This $1.8 million seemed like an astonishingly small amount compared to the originally estimated $355 million at that time. The objective of the renovation was to clean the algae out of the reflecting pool and paint the pool floor “American Flag Blue” by July 4.

Due to the deadline, the government failed to go through the months-long process of bidding the task to other companies as well as deciding a price before the task was finished. Ultimately, this led the project to failure.

The government chose Atlantic Industrial Coating (AIC) to execute the pool floor renovation and Greenwater Services to clear the algae. In addition, allowing the AIC to start on the project before the price was decided bestowed the contractor with a massive financial leverage. The government lost the ability to negotiate the price because the firm had the ability to walk away from the unfinished national monument if the payment was deemed too low. As a consequence, the price went from $1.8 million all the way up to $15 million.

There were several mistakes made by the AIC along the way, including painting too early, skipping the structural pipe repairs, and pouring in the water too quickly. Although, some could point to the government for the deadline rush. Nevertheless, these mistakes led to a devastating result. After the water was poured in, algae, later identified as Desmodesmus, grew overnight. The blue paint started to peel off in large flakes, and the bill was $15 million. The worst of it all is that it was citizens who got blamed.

President Trump claimed that people intentionally cut up the pool floor’s blue paint and poured chemicals in the water as a form of vandalism. Several citizens were arrested for touching the paint including a 3-time U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn. This provoked outrage from the citizens.

While it is still unclear who’s fault the crisis of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was, the claim of vandalism is unwarranted. Furthermore, experts have stated that the peeling was caused by renovation flaws instead.

Overall, this pool renovation project ended in multi-million-dollar infrastructure crisis and an outraged public. The government paid $15 million for the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to have flaking blue paint and more algae than it began with, and left several people imprisoned.