Workers paint Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue
Workers have begun painting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue as part of US President Donald Trump’s bid to beautify Washington DC ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday this summer.
The historic pool, which stretches 2,030 ft (620 m) between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, has long been plagued by leaks, structural deterioration, faulty pipes, algae growth and bird droppings.
Trump said the project to restore and paint the monument would solve the leak problem and make the pool more beautiful than ever.
But it’s unclear whether the repairs will solve the major structural problems of the attraction, which was built in 1922.
[Reuters]
In a video message from the Oval Office in April, Trump said the reflecting pool was “dirty and dirty and had been leaking like a colander for years.”
But Trump said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, whose mandate includes the monument, has promised to fix the problem.
Trump’s motorcade makes its way down the drained bed of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, where he visited to inspect renovations. [Reuters]
Trump said initial bids for the pool renovation included an estimated cost of $300 million (£220 million) and a timeline of more than three years. The President added that it is also suggested that the original granite of the pool be removed and replaced with stone.
But Trump said he had found “a better way to do it” and called some contractors who had worked for him in the past on renovating swimming pools and said they could do it for $1.5 million to $2 million.
President Trump visits the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Thursday [Reuters]
“We scrubbed the surface of the existing granite that had been there since 1922, then we grouted all the granite, smoothed it, it took about two weeks and now we have a nice, clean surface that we put an industrial-grade swimming pool liner on,” he said.
Trump said the paint color was “American Flag Blue.”
Two ducks stand in the empty Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as workers paint the pool blue on Friday [Reuters]
According to the New York Times, the Trump administration took advantage of an emergency exemption to award a no-bid contract to a preferred vendor for $6.9 million above the promised amount.
The BBC has contacted the White House for comment.
Tim Whitehouse, chief executive of the non-profit watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, told the BBC that this project was evidence that “the system of checks and balances has broken down in the United States”.
“Burgum is foregoing various legal safeguards to improperly facilitate Trump’s vanity projects in the nation’s capital,” Whitehouse said.
Trump said the paint would last 40 or 50 years and “there won’t be any leaks, there won’t be anything.”
“For a lot less money, it will look a lot nicer, a lot nicer than it did when they were built in 1922,” the president said.
Painting the reflecting pool blue is the latest project Trump is pursuing in Washington, D.C.
he wants Build a 250-meter triumphal archhe demolished the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom and changed the names of institutions such as the Kennedy Center and the Institute of Peace to add his name.
