By:Chris Munzing
City Manager Dr. Glen L. Spiritis said that he and the City Council sought a second opinion from Severud Associates Consulting Engineers after the LiRo Group, the firm that did the original repairs on the damaged roof, said the entire roof needed to be replaced. Severud Associates, which Spiritis called one of the most respected contractors in the state, said that the damage to the roof was minor, and that only 10 percent of it needs to be repaired.
"It is [Severud Associates's] opinion that the roof damage the previous firm said was there was not there," Spiritis said. Spiritis said the LiRo Group and the city did not execute the analysis of the roof properly. "I blame the both of us," he said. "The city should've known."
In November, a chunk of concrete from the pool's ceiling crashed through its newly installed drop ceiling and landed in a corner of the bleachers. No one was injured, and no other pieces have fallen since then.
The concrete piece fell because the steel beams reinforcing the concrete slabs rusted and expanded, causing the concrete around one of them to crack and fall. The process is called spawling.
Spiritis said that Severud Associates, which designed the roofs at Madison Square Garden and Laguardia Airport, will be drawing up plans for the repairs immediately. The repairs will then go out for bid.
City Council President Jim Hennessy said that the council was not ready to accept the pool's being closed for up to a year and a half. "We told the city manager that 18 months is just too long, and he took the bull by the horns," he said.
"This is great for the people of the City of Long Beach," Council Vice President Tom Sofield said. "Hopefully we'll be able to get it going as soon as possible."
Hennessy said the council is hopeful that the pool facility will be opened sometime during the summer, perhaps as early as July 1. Hennessy also said that the new repairs will be much less expensive than the city originally thought. "What [LiRo was] talking about was in the millions," he said. "This would be much less costly."
The city manager said that the July 1 target date was not out of the question, and that the project would be starting as soon as possible. Spiritis added that the funding for the project would come from Community Development Block Grant money from the county that the city has not spent from the previous fiscal year.
