Trump’s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool makeover faces a lawsuit and a $13m price tag

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EPA

A project to fix and paint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which President Donald Trump said would cost $1.8m (£1.33m), is now expected to cost $13.1m, federal records show.

Trump awarded the contract for the work to a Virginia company he had previously used to repair pools at one of his golf clubs, going around a requirement that mandates the government see competing offers.

That decision prompted a lawsuit from a nonprofit organisation that asks for work to be halted, arguing Trump ignored laws that limit changes to historical landmarks.

The pool makeover began over the weekend as part of Trump’s bid to beautify the US capital ahead of America’s 250th birthday celebrations this summer.

When asked about the project on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that “for the first time since1922 [the reflecting pool is] going to work properly”.

The contract says that the work on the pool will be completed 22 May, a much quicker timeline than was originally expected and just in time for America’s big anniversary.

Initially, renovations for the 104-year-old landmark were estimated to cost $300m and take over three years.

The pool, stretching 2,030ft (620m) 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 he found “a better way of doing it” that would only cost $1.5m to $2m.

The president has said his project to restore and paint the monument would solve a leaking problem and make the pool more beautiful than ever.

The Trump administration awarded a no-bid contract – totalling $6.9m – to the president’s preferred vendor, using an exemption meant for emergency situations.

Federal records now show the project will cost more than twice that and more than seven times what the president promised.

It remains unclear whether the repairs can specifically fix the underlying structural issues at the attraction, which was built in 1922.

The contract the Interior Department granted was to a company called Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a selection the president said he made based on work the firm previously did at one of Trump’s golf courses.

This prompted the Cultural Landscape Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to “promoting informed stewardship” of historic landscapes, to ask a judge to halt the renovations.

“Every day that the resurfacing continues, the historic character of the Reflecting Pool is being further and fundamentally altered,” the lawsuit against the administration read.

Reuters

The renovations have been a priority for the president, who visited the site last week to take a first-hand look at the drained pool.

“It’s much more beautiful than it was new because it never had the colour people wanted, but now it’s going to have the great colour. So it’s going to be good,” Trump said at the time.

This paint project is the latest in series of beautification projects Trump has prioritized since returning to Washington.

He wants to construct a 250-foot victory arch, has demolished the White House East Wing to build a ballroom, and has been retitling institutions such as the Kennedy Center and Institute of Peace to add his own name.

Reuters

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