Last weekend, I walked downtown to take pictures of the project, as usual. I encountered a construction worker on break, and he initiated a conversation with me. One of the things he mentioned several times was the number of water leaks that they had to deal with, and the amount of drywall work that needs to be redone as a result.
The following was posted on Lancaster Newspapers’ TalkBack online forum. I do no know who this person is, but I can independently verify at least some of these statements:
I have been living with the nightmare of the Convention Center for quite a while now. You see, I am the wife of a man who is 60 yrs. old and has been a union painter/paperhanger his entire working career.
This project got started way, way pass the time it was supposed to get started. You can not make that time up! I hear the horror stories every night after my husband completes his 10 hr. workdays (7 days a week & 13 hrs. per day if you include the driving time)!
Reynolds & High are way over their heads with this project. Funny how they could not see what all the construction workers could see! There are so many things that went wrong, it is too much to list!
But the drywall had to get up on the walls and the ceilings even though the plumbing had not yet been tested! Does it surprise anyone that leaks are springing up all over the place! The swimming pool is on the
5th floor, serious water leakage down through the 4th floor ceiling today!Dead birds laying around and baby birds trapped in the duct work with no way out! Unless you are one that loves nature, I guess that wouldn’t be too terrible. Things were built out of sequence which made it hard for some workers to do their part of this project.
All the workers knew that the Center was not going to open in April. They also knew the it was not going
to open on May 11th when the public was told it would. How could Reynolds and High be so blind to that fact?The Center is going to be fancy, that’s for sure! But fancy can not cover up the horror this project has been. Every evening, I listen to the run down of the day at the circus and just shake my head at just how much common sense was NOT a factor in the building of the Center.
By the way, my husband told me tonight that he will probably still be there come the changing of the leaves to orange, red and gold!
