Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 23, 1994 TAG: 9409230115
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Short
Workers with the Allen R. Neely Co. finished caulking vertical expansion joints on the 15-year-old building, the last step in the summer-long project, said Steve Phillips, the county's building engineer.
The company subcontracted the roofing portion of the job out to Karl H. Frye Roofing of Bluefield, W.Va., earlier in the summer. The 72-foot-high building now has a rubber membrane roof that's "white as snow" and guaranteed for 15 years, Phillips said. The original project price was $118,000, but there will be $3,000 to $5,000 in extra costs, Phillips said, bringing the final bill up to $123,000.
The good news: in working over the sand-colored courthouse, which had a history of mechanical problems in its early years, Phillips determined "the structure is more sound than we thought."
The first sign that the project was wrapping up came Sept. 9, when the county re-opened the East Main Street sidewalk beside the courthouse.
The sidewalk and a basement entrance had been closed since just after Labor Day last year, when a chunk of water-damaged brick fell from the fourth-floor exterior as Phillips tested it. Faulty roof flashing and too-rigid expansion joints had caused much of the masonry damage.
by CNB