By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — Bids are now being sought for repairs to the Justice Building following the collapse of limestone slabs above an entrance nearly eight months ago.
Structural supports have been in place along parts of two sides of the building since shortly after several slabs of limestone came crashing down on Aug. 29. Nobody was injured, but it led to an extensive look into other possible structural weaknesses in the Justice Building.
That damage on Aug. 29 led the county to conduct a complete review of the building, which led to the discovery of potential weaknesses in parts of the structure’s oldest section on the north and east sides involving exterior walls.
Last week, the county commissioners announced plans to seek bids on a “comprehensive” project prepared by Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates of Indianapolis.
WJE is a group of engineers, architects, and materials scientists that specialize in structural repairs and has a portfolio of work that ranges from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City to the Third Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis that spans the Mississippi River, according to the firm’s website.
The bid package unveiled by the county is more than an inch thick with detailed plans for the improvements.
“It’s not just the repair where the facade actually fell, but it’s also reattaching other panels throughout the building with a new anchoring system to make sure that that wouldn’t happen again, as well as all mortar joints being re-caulked and resealed, the whole cleaning of the exterior,” Groninger said during Tuesday’s meeting.
“It’s a pretty comprehensive scope over the whole facade,” he added.
The entire project, said commissioner Bob Conley, is being done “out of an abundance of caution.”
“It happened once, we don’t want it to happen again,” Conley said.
