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Two tons of Justice to vacate courthouse
YOUNGSTOWN
Justice, Strength and Authority, and Law will be evicted this month from the Mahoning County Courthouse.
The five-week project entailing removal of the three rooftop statues bearing those names and emergency stabilization of the statue pedestal begins today.
The project begins with the erection of rooftop scaffolding to gain access behind the three statues, an exterior examination of the their granite and concrete pedestal, and an interior examination of the statues. Then a crane or man-lift will begin removing the statues, one section at a time, later this week, said James Yoder, project architect with the 4M Co. of Boardman.
“Once that scaffolding is up, then that allows us a platform to work off of,” he said.
The statues on the Market Street landmark are 15 feet high, and have a combined width of 40 feet, and a combined weight of 2 tons.
The three figures will be stored off-site until they can be restored to their rooftop perch in a complete restoration of the century-old county courthouse at a later date, said Robert Mastriana, an architect and partner in the 4M Co.
The hollow statues are being removed to eliminate wind-driven pressure that has been de-stabilizing their pedestal and causing the pedestal to lean toward Market Street, Yoder said.
The masonry ballast inside the statues, which stabilizes them, will be removed to take weight off the pedestal, he said.
The statues have a copper skin and a copper and wood interior skeleton, with the copper parts of the skeleton intact and the wood having rotted, Mastriana said. They were built using the same technique as the Statue of Liberty, he added.
After the statues are removed by Ameriseal Restoration of Akron, Roth Brothers Inc. will install a temporary roof for the statue pedestal.
To shore up the pedestal, the project also entails wrapping stainless-steel cables around the pedestal’s exterior and through holes to be drilled in the pedestal to the interior, Yoder said. “This is a typical temporary fix. This is an industry standard,” he added.
Mastriana added, however, “This has never been done before locally.”
This fall’s temporary emergency stabilization will not address the corrosion of the carbon steel beams supporting the pedestal due to water leakage through cracks in the pedestal, Yoder said.
That issue would be addressed in the full courthouse restoration effort, for which county officials are seeking $10 million in federal stimulus money.
On Sept. 23, the county commissioners awarded contracts of $80,500 and $46,020, respectively, to Ameriseal as general and statue contractor, and a $15,523 contract to Roth Brothers as roof contractor.
In a separate effort in advance of the county bar association’s March 2011 observance of the centennial of the courthouse’s opening, Mastriana said his company plans to saw cut from the cornerstone the time-capsule that was installed there in the June 1908 cornerstone-laying ceremony, and open the capsule.