By Jasper Ward
WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) – The paint on Washington’s newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Thursday was peeling away from the bottom and into the algae-tinted water, less than two weeks after President Donald Trump announced the job’s completion.
The historic pool was drained and refinished in a $14.7 million no-bid contract this year as part of Trump’s sweeping plans to remake the U.S.’s capital city, which includes tearing down the East Wing of the White House to make space for a new ballroom and building a massive arch near Arlington National Cemetery, which honors the nation’s war dead and other prominent Americans.
Trump announced on June 6 that work on the pool had finished. By Tuesday, workers had started pouring hydrogen peroxide into the pool to combat an algae bloom that had turned it green, instead of the expected dark blue.
The National Park Service, which operates the National Mall, where the pool is located, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the Virginia-based company that carried out the renovations, also did not immediately respond.
Some visitors to the site said they were unimpressed.
“I want my money back after seeing this. I think our resources could be used a lot better elsewhere,” Robert Dale of Edwards, Colorado, told Reuters as he looked on. “I think this reflecting pool was beautiful before, before all this attention.”
Trump has faced criticism for speeding past planning processes meant to preserve Washington’s carefully designed appearances in his renovation program, criticism that his administration has dismissed as partisan sniping while praising the real estate developer’s design acumen.
Lawmakers have also raised questions about his decision to accept a $400 million airplane from Qatar to be put into service as Air Force One, which ferries the president, his staff and security detail and journalists on his travels around the nation and the world. Security experts have warned that retrofitting the plane would require extensive security upgrades, communications improvements to prevent eavesdropping and missile-defense capabilities, all of which would take time and money to install.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington, additional reporting by Greg Savoy; editing by Scott Malone and David Gaffen)
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