Leaks, cracks, filth stain State Capitol building

HARTFORD — Your State Capitol is crumbling.

It isn’t about to fall down, but the High Victorian Gothic monument to the Civil War is suffering from decades of deferred maintenance, and needs tens of millions of dollars in rehabilitation.

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The 257-foot-tall, gold-domed National Historic Landmark requires new gas-fed boilers for the upper stories. Repairs to the ornate capitals, atop the exterior Corinthian columns, have separated further since the last time they were sealed over 30 years ago. Interior columns are showing rust stains.

Air pollution has badly stained the marble and soft-granite exterior that requires special care when cleaning. A few of the outside architectural flourishes, called medallions, have broken off the building over the years. Exterior stone is literally decomposing.

Window frames are cracked and there’s a pesky, mysterious water leak inside, on the fifth floor, which has perplexed building officials for years. The wooden flag pole in the center of the building is slightly bent.

The sidewalks - designed and paid for with a grant a few years back as a porous, unique, eco-friendly way for water to quickly migrate during storms - are now crumbling. The parking lot needs replacement. During a recent downtown power outage, electricity in the Capitol failed when a low-voltage wire attached to the building’s generator failed.

During rain storms, buckets are put in strategic spots in the two first-floor atriums on the east and west sides, to catch drips from the skylights six floors up. A plastic garbage can with a pipe collects similar runoff in the...

from News https://www.ctpost.com/politics/article/Leaks-cracks-filth-stain-State-Capitol-building-13726629.php