Cost of Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool repairs nearing $15M
The cost of President Donald Trump's ongoing renovation of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool is nearing $15 million, according to federal contract records reviewed by ABC News.
Contracts to resurface the reflecting pool and replace its filtration system were awarded without going through a competitive bidding process, arguing the country's impending 250th anniversary celebrations created an "unusual and compelling urgency."
"[D]elaying the award long enough to conduct a competitive procurement would prevent the National Park Service from completing the work in time to reopen the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool for the Nation's 250th anniversary event series," the Department of the Interior said in contracting documents. "This delay would result in serious injury to the Government, including failure to meet statutory visitor-safety responsibilities and operational commitments for the 250th."
The current cost of the repainting is nearly ten times the $1.5 million estimate that Trump has repeatedly described.
"So we build it in much less time for much less money, but I don't mean much less. I mean numbers that nobody can even believe. So it's $1.5 million versus $300 million," Trump said in a video from the Oval Office on April 23.
The Trump administration has paid $1.74 million to an Ohio firm to replace the existing filtration system for the reflecting pool. The government originally paid $6.8 million to the Atlantic Industrial Coatings, Virginia firm, to repaint the reflecting pool, though the Interior Department added an additional $6.2 million to the contract last week.
Trump previously said he selected the contractor for the repainting because the same company had done work at one of his golf clubs.
"Over the years, as a developer, I've probably built more than 100 swimming pools in different buildings I built, and I have some really good pool builders," he said in the Oval Office last month.
In a social media post Monday night, Trump lashed out at the New York Times for reporting about the surging cost of the renovation despite the costs detailed in government documents, arguing that previous presidential administrations have similarly spent millions to improve the site.
"I worked with our now strong Department of the Interior and explained to them that we should view this as a highly sophisticated swimming pool, not the leaking, dilapidated facade, joints and all, of a building," Trump wrote. "Instead of taking 4 years to build, at a cost, granite pavers and all, of 400 Million Dollars, we could construct a far superior Reflecting Pool for 5 or 6 Million Dollars, and could complete the project in 2 weeks rather than 4 years. What a difference in time and money, and for a far superior end result!"
