Repairs to the West Virginia Public Service Commission's building are expected to be done by the end of this year, more than three years after an architectural report said the building's exterior brick facade was in danger of falling off.
General contracting firm Pullman, which has six locations in the United States including in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, is doing the work on the Quarrier Street building for an estimated $4.1 million, PSC spokeswoman Susan Small said. The repairs are being paid for out of the PSC's regular accounts, she said.
"We've been setting money aside for this," Small said.
The work started the last week of February, she said. The project is expected to be "substantially" done by the end of November and completely done by the end of December, Small said. The difference between the two is that the PSC has hired an independent consultant to look over the project for quality control after initial work is done in November. The consultant will evaluate the building and tell the contractor if anything further needs to be done by the end of December, she said.
The project started after officials noticed damage to a free-standing arch on the side of the building facing Quarrier Street. The arch was visible from the commissioners' office and people noticed cracks that it would move during storms, she said.
The PSC hired Swanke Hayden Connell Architects of Washington, D.C., and CAS Structural Engineering Inc. of Alum Creek to evaluate the building.
A May 2013 report from the two firms stated that "based upon our observation of the existing building, we conclude that the exterior masonry skin is severely compromised and in an advanced stage of deterioration."
The firms were originally hired in late 2012. They first examined the arch and determined there was a great chance bits of the arch could fall. They told the city of Charleston to declare its masonry in "emergency condition."
Maynard C. Smith Construction of Charleston demolished the arch, except for its steel frame, at a cost of $116,000.
The facade project is not an optional cosmetic fix for the building, Small stressed. During an evaluation of the building, an architect found that in parts of the facade, brick ties that connect the building's cinder blocks to its brick facade were too far apart. In another part of the facade the brick ties were absent altogether, she said.
"It could have fallen at any time," Small said.
The construction company that originally built the building has since gone out of business.
Hiring an independent consultant for quality control, as the PSC is doing with this project, is something that should have been done when the building was originally constructed in the mid-1980s, she said.
Small said the project took time to get through the state's purchasing process.
"The whole thing, it's taken a while," Small said.
The first thing contractors did was take down the brick facade on the building, she said. They'll do repairs to water damage and put on a new brick facade, she said.
The office has stayed open during the work. Recently the work has focused on the part of the building outside the commission's hearing room, she said. At times, officials have had to stop a hearing because the noise outside got too loud, she said.
"You do what you gotta do," she said. "Nobody is whining."
The project has also affected parking. Contractors are using the main parking area, on Quarrier Street between the PSC's main building and its transportation facility, as a sort of staging area. The parking lot has a few available spaces, which have been designated as handicap spaces. Additional guest parking is available in a lot behind the transportation facility and accessible via an alley off Lee Street and another between the transportation facility and the YWCA next door, she said. PSC staff members are parking in a garage at the corner of Lee and Brooks street. The building's two main entrances are still open.
"We're still open for business," Small said.
Reach Lori Kersey at Lori.kersey@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1240 or follow @LoriKerseyWV on Twitter.