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

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Source: 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

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/25/politics/reflecting-pool-firm-renovation-unfeasible

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Link to tweet

[The Roux Comes First]

2. If Only Karma Had a Better Sense of Humor

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. trump taking the Beast and other vehicles may have played a role in the failure

This is from the article cited in the OP

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.”

[BidenRocks]

4. Only chump had the authority to order the motorcade

to drive through the pool.
I doubt ANY driver would even think of doing so.

Like driving a covid infected chump on a beauty cruise in T1.

I am really looking forward to the vandalism court cases. Jury trials all around!

[paleotn]

8. Adding insult to injury.

Materials used well outside their design parameters driven over a few times just to make sure they fail quickly.

[Aussie105]

5. Death of the Reflecting Pool?

Drain it, rip up the concrete, fill it in, grass it over?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. Do not give trump any ideas

I can see trump doing this

[erronis]

12. Great location for a new Trump Casino!

[jmowreader]

15. You've been reading my rants, I see...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221304055

[erronis]

17. I stand on the shoulders of giants! Any many of us think along the same lines. Great writing!

I think DU needs a new front-page section called "Interesting" - your posts would fit right in.

"I am going to have this terrible pool, which was built by Barack Hussein Obama to make me look bad, completely torn out and replaced with a Trump casino," said King Donald. "Millions of patriotic Americans will flock to our nation's capital to lose money to me."

[Karasu]

7. Well, yeah. The only people stupid enough to not anticipate this result were complete incompetents, and that's all the

regime has.

[flashman13]

9. We don't need no stinkin' experts.

[AverageOldGuy]

10. Imagine that

Trump wanted the cheap, quick way. But he’s a builder the best builder ever and it was antifa vandals with razor knives. Right??!

The people charged with vandalism have a high powered lawyer who is working pro bono. Judge Winebox Pirro is prosecutor. Lawyer will rip her a new asshole. I smell grand jury return NOT TRUE bill. If it goes to trial NOT GUILTY dismissed with prejudice GTF out of my courtroom with this billshit!!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

11. The OP has a great deal more on why this project failed

Here is more from the OP

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 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.

[BradBo]

13. Rhino Lining must be a shit product.

[obamanut2012]

16. It's actually an excellent product

[ToxMarz]

18. Sounds like they are excellent products for particular uses, this not being one of them

And the contractor didn't know what he was dealing with or what the correct solution was so they used a well known popular product that was woefully inappropriate for the project

[lonely bird]

19. Rhino Linings

Is not one product.

They formulate different products depending on the application. The same is true for virtually every manufacturer of polyurea/polyurethane.

If they aren’t installed correctly or if the conditions change then the lining can fail.

[Wounded Bear]

14. A reptuable firm knows that you can't fool Mother Nature...

As the old saying goes: The difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer. Money can't overcome physics and chemistry.

[Grokenstein]

20. So that suggests the current re-repair job is going to be equally clusterfucked.

piggy ain't care. It's someone else's money.