Grace Palo
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) On Tuesday, a week after the country elected its 45th president, government officials unveiled a new, revived dome as a renewed emblem of national unity after a divided election.
After three years, the $60 million project that had the dome covered in scaffolding in order to repair cracks and fix the damaged or missing cast-iron ornaments has come to a finish. Some of the damaged ornaments were recast at a special foundry in Utah, being the first time that these types of ornaments had been replaced.
In the Rotunda itself, peeling paint was and the surfaces were completely repainted, and iron work had to be restored. Electrical, mechanical and lighting systems also were upgraded.
The dome is made of 9 million pounds of cast iron, which had been coated over time in 14 layers of paint. Water had been seeping into the dome, as the iron had been corroded and damaged after so little time being repaired and taken care of. For the first time, all 14 layers of paint, including the original paint itself, was removed from the Rotunda. The exterior surface was repainted with 1,215 gallons of paint in three layers, with the top coat color being “dome white.”
In restoring the dome, Architect of the Capitol Stephen T. Ayers said in a statement that workers had discovered, in addition to some of the original signatures, a crowbar that had been left behind by a worker over 150 years ago.
The dome, which is 29 stories high, is believed to be the tallest such cast-iron structure in world, according to the architect.
Creating and building the 25 levels of scaffolding, made up of 75,000 pieces, or 52 miles, of metal pipe, began in early May of 2014 and was completed in November 2014. The exterior scaffolding had begun to be removed late last year and was largely gone by September.
The dome’s last restoration had taken place between 1959 and 1960. One goal of the latest project was that it be finished in time for the presidential inauguration in January.
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(Photo: Architect of the Capitol)
