Chapel dome to be scaffolded into summer
Pandemic causes latest Naval Academy project delay
When the scaffolding comes off of the Naval Academy Chapel, a new copper landmark will shape the Annapolis skyline.
Gone is the green dome of the chapel. Instead, a new copper one will emerge.
But visitors and residents will have to wait until July before the scaffolding comes down. Those who come to Annapolis for Commissioning Week hoping to get a picture with the dome will have to settle for a picture with scaffolding.
The Naval Academy Chapel dome project was slated to finish by Thanksgiving, with Superintendent Vice Adm. Sean Buck telling the academy’s Board of Visitors during a fall meeting that scaffolding would be coming down shortly.
At least it was meant to come down until the COVID-19 pandemic managed to find another way to disrupt the Naval Academy.
One cause of the project’s delay was a temporary closure of the copper manufacturing factory, said Regina Adams, spokesperson for the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Washington.
The pandemic also affected other parts of the supply chain, delivery and installation, Adams said in an email.
This is the second delay in the project. Originally, the repair, which was meant to
fix the most critical areas of the dome, had an expected completion of December 2019, she said.
Then the project scope was expanded by over 30% to include replacing the entire dome with an expected finish in June 2020.
While repairing the dome, other problems were discovered, including needing to do additional repair to the terra cotta, the concrete and batten, as well as abate asbestos and address any degraded substrates, Adams said in her email.
Those additional repairs added six months to the construction timeline.
The dome project’s cost increased by $4,419,261.13, Adams said. That brought the cost up from the awarded price of $8,906,365 to $13.3 million.
Buck alluded to the pandemic’s effect on the copper factory during the Board of Visitors meeting. He told the members that it pushed the finish from June to Thanksgiving.
At the time, the final copper plates were supposed to go on the dome.
Once the dome is completed, the new copper plates should remain the reddishbrown color for about 25 years before the exposure to oxygen returns it to the green color most people associate with the dome.
The new dome will also have new skylights and a French drain, meant to keep water away from the dome, The Capital previously reported.
The restoration to the dome is at least the seventh time it has been repaired, with projects extending back as far as 1929. The chapel suffered from water leaks since it was built and the construction is meant to address the problem.
The chapel was most recently renovated in 2009 when wooden floors and pews were replaced, along with repairs to the plaster trim and a color scheme change to the inside.
The cornerstone for the chapel was laid in 1904, with the first service held in 1908, according to the Naval Academy.