Exclusive: Firm that worked on past Reflecting Pool renovation passed on Trump project after deeming it ‘unfeasible’

By Abigail Roederhsheimer, Isabelle Khurshudyan, Sunlen Serfaty, CNN

(CNN) — Several months before blue strips started floating to the surface of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a company involved in its last renovation more than 15 years ago was approached with an opportunity to do this remodel as well. But the company said no.

Specifically, it balked at two requirements – the Trump administration wanted it done by July 4, and the pool bottom had to be blue, according to two employees with the New Jersey-based Sika Corporation, which provided the concrete construction and sealing products for a 2010 renovation project to the Reflecting Pool.

According to the two employees, who spoke to CNN on the condition they not be identified, both demands made the job “unfeasible.”

Ultimately, Rhino Linings, which is most popular for its truck bed linings but also says on its website it can be used for water facilities, was chosen to provide materials for the latest Reflecting Pool renovation.

Now, less than a month after it was applied, the material from the bottom of the Reflecting Pool appears to be peeling off, causing a massive Washington brouhaha, with President Donald Trump blaming radical left vandals and contractors promising to fix what they say are isolated problem areas. Meanwhile, algae has turned the water various shades of green despite the renovation that was supposed to clear that up.

Trump has maintained that the renovation has been a success, but the project has faced heavy scrutiny. It was initially estimated to cost $1.8 million, but the price tag is now up to $14.7 million, according to a contract summary of the Interior Department’s award to Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings.

Given Sika’s prior experience working on the Reflecting Pool, the company’s decision to decline the contract, which has not been previously reported, could further enflame mounting criticism that the project was rushed and potentially improperly completed.

Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sent letters Wednesday to the contractors overseeing the renovation, requesting information such as contracts and water quality records.

“Donald Trump’s disastrous renovation of our national Reflecting Pool is his latest failed vanity project,” Garcia said in a statement. “The President should be focused on making life more affordable for the American people, not rewarding his loyalists with government contracts and wasting taxpayer money on failing projects. We’re demanding answers straight from the contractors about the project’s failures.”

Sika Corp. did not reply to CNN’s request for comment.

Competing theories on what went wrong

The drama around the Reflecting Pool has spawned theories as to what went wrong from both the president and internet sleuths.

Last Friday, Trump first echoed claims that surfaced in right-wing circles that the pool’s broader problems are a result of vandalism. Trump has floated a number of allegations, often without evidence, including that there’s a gash hundreds of feet long in the pool.

On Wednesday night, the Justice Department said in a court filing that the caulk over the pool’s foam sealant was cut with a “sharp knife or razor” and that the tops of roughly 70 fence posts were thrown into the pool. The filing is part of a lawsuit brought by the nonprofit Cultural Landscape Foundation that contends officials bypassed regulatory steps in order to complete the renovation.

Tourists and local residents alike have flocked to the site in recent days to take photos and videos of the algae bloom or peeling blue strips. Police arrested at least six people for vandalism and issued federal citations to at least seven others.

At least one person who was arrested for vandalism, three-time US Olympian David Hearn, told CNN that he was merely touching a piece of partially detached blue material from the recent renovation.

Online commentators have also speculated that the bottom of the pool may have been affected by the presence of heavy equipment and trucks — and a presidential motorcade that drove through at one point — shortly after the coating was applied.

Ravi Kurani, President of Standard Water Corp, an industrial technology company, told CNN he would never recommend driving cars out onto a pool surface, especially when renovations are being done.

“It’s like you’re putting flooring on your kitchen floor and then you’re take a really heavy tractor on top of it – it’s going to mess it up a little bit.”

Tim Auerhahn, a pool infrastructure expert and the chairman of the Aquatic Council, a consulting firm , said over email there isn’t enough information to definitively conclude that the vehicle traffic caused damage, but “it is one of several factors that should be considered as part of a comprehensive failure analysis.”

Auerhahn added that, “It’s important not to focus on a single theory too early.”

Trump said this week that the Reflecting Pool will be drained again for “permanent repair” around the Fourth of July.

A complicated job

The last time Sika worked on the reflecting pool was in 2012, when President Barack Obama’s administration spent $34 million on an 18-month renovation of the pool which was meant to address ongoing issues with algae blooms.

However, shortly after that renovation was completed, the pool again became a murky, smelly mess. That apparent failure to adequately address the issues with the pool became political fodder for Trump when he ordered his own renovation.

That’s when, in late March, Sika was contacted by American Concrete Services for a quick surfacing project, in blue, according to the two Sika employees who spoke to CNN. It’s unclear why the Department of Interior used a different contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings.

American Concrete Services did not reply to a request for comment for this story.

Sika declined the proposal after a routine assessment of feasibility and risk, the employees said. One of the Sika specialists assumed that was because Sika’s solution was complicated and lengthy, not fitting the contractor’s tight timeline of just a few months turnaround.

The main issue, one of Sika employees said, was the lining over the expansion joints featured in the Reflecting Pool and constraints on what material could be used and submerged in water. The Reflecting Pool features 2.5 miles of joints, which were recently replaced as part of the renovations, according to Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

The joints allow the large concrete slabs they connect to flex with changing temperatures.

One of the solutions Sika proposed was to place metal on top of the joints, then apply a blue color coating. Sika warned the contractor that with potential movement – natural expansion and contraction – the metal could show through, causing inconsistencies with the blue used in other parts of the pool, the employee said.

Prior to when peeling was first spotted, in an interview this month with Emily Miller, a journalist and former Republican communications strategist, Eddie Wood, who owns Atlantic Industrial Coatings, said it was the government that decided to use a type of plastic-like coating called polyurea and contract Rhino Linings to provide those materials .

The company has previously been contracted by branches of the military, providing coatings for body armor, helicopters, fuel tanks and trucks, its website says. Wood previously told CNN he was proud of his company’s part in the project and said he had nothing to do with the algae-filled water. When the blue material started peeling, he said he would address any problems that have arisen.

Wood told CNN he was not available to answer questions regarding the renovation process and timeline this week.

Rhino Linings has also been named in multiple lawsuits. In late 2021, a jury returned a $2 million verdict against Rhino, finding it did not properly train or vet its recommended installer. The jury also found Rhino failed to thoroughly inspect the finished roof for a large commercial building in Texas. According to allegations in the lawsuit, those failures resulted in the building experiencing more than 200 leaks and required the installation of a new metal roof over the Rhino Linings products to prevent further damage.

Rhino Linings did not reply to CNN’s request for comment.

The two Rhino Linings products ultimately used in the Reflecting Pool were Rhino 406 Primer and Pipeliner 5000, according to an advertisement for the company. The primer is made up of epoxy, and the pipeliner is made of a mixture of resin and isocyanate – polyurea.

The Pipeliner 5000 product is typically used for linings in water storage, wastewater facilities, and pipes – containers not exposed to sunlight on a regular basis. Some polyureas are not stable under UV light .

As for the Rhino 406 Primer, one Sika employee said that epoxy, which is a popular coating for garage floors, is rigid, and would not be a good solution for flexing joints like the ones in the Reflecting Pool.

In a statement about the Reflecting Pool on its website, Rhino Linings said it “is aware of reports regarding localized areas of finish coat separation.”

“Based on information provided to us by the project team, the condition is limited to isolated areas of the finish layer and does not affect the underlying waterproofing membrane,” the statement added. “The project stakeholders are aware of the condition, and corrective actions have been identified .”

Asked to review the Sika employee’s explanation of why the company didn’t feel the reflecting pool job was feasible, Auerhahn, the pool infrastructure expert, said it was “a technically reasonable assessment.”

“Large expansion joints are challenging features in aquatic installations, especially in large basins where movement is likely,” Auerhahn said. “Epoxy systems perform well in many aquatic installations, but they’re relatively rigid and not relied upon when significant joint movement is expected. Using a metal cap over this joint is not an unreasonable solution and has been relied on in other engineering applications.”

Auerhahn, who cautioned his observations were based only on publicly available information, said that while he would stop short of concluding that Rhino Pipeliner 5000 was definitively the wrong product for the application, the product’s selection “raises legitimate technical questions regarding substrate compatibility, UV exposure, joint movement, chemical exposure and long-term durability in the unique environment of the Reflecting Pool.”

He added that using polyurea coatings in a large historic water basin is similarly unconventional.

“It has not been well proven in fountains and pools, so it was a largely untested technology given the setting,” Auerhahn said.

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