President Donald Trump’s attempt to dodge lawsuits against his construction projects is paving the way toward another Reflecting Pool-style disaster, experts contend.
Trump’s rushed construction of projects, including the East Wing ballroom and triumphal arch, were subjected to a scathing critique from The Atlantic on Saturday.
“Compressed schedules could lead to shoddy work that will require more repairs later,” The Atlantic warned. “Trump’s botched repairs to the Reflecting Pool ahead of the nation’s 250th-birthday celebrations, in July, offer a classic example of the problem.”
The article described a Washington where “cranes and bulldozers appear like DoorDash deliveries: fast, frictionless, and on demand.”
When historic preservationists sued to stop the bulldozing of the White House East Wing, the Trump administration argued in the Supreme Court that construction of the ballroom was 65 percent complete and too far along to stop now. Ultimately, the Supreme Court gave Trump the green light to proceed after finding that the preservationists lacked standing.
Earlier this week, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that excavation for the triumphal arch will start in the next two weeks, a “similarly intensive schedule,” The Atlantic noted. The Vietnam veterans filed an emergency motion seeking a restraining order to stop the project, and a judge ordered the Trump administration to provide advance notice before work begins.
The Atlantic noted that the Trump administration is also trying to shut down the Kennedy Center for two years to carry out renovations in a rushed fashion. The Kennedy Center has been caught in back-and-forth court battles over Trump’s attempt to put his name on it.
According to research cited by The Atlantic, long hours, additional shifts, and overlapping work during compressed and rushed construction invite new delays, higher costs, and revisions down the line.
“Accelerated construction is always at higher cost, no matter what you do,” Awad Hanna, the chair of the construction-engineering and management program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, told The Atlantic.
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