Work begins to repair, waterproof Cedar Rapids City Hall basement

CEDAR RAPIDS - In a training room in the basement of Cedar Rapids City Hall, Tyler Rowell clears a 1-foot-deep channel in the floor designed to invite in water bubbling up from the ground.

An employee at Ace Concrete Cutting of Marion, Rowell's work is part of an effort aimed at preventing future damage due to flooding. Rather than spilling all over the basement, water now will be directed to a new sump pit where it will be pumped back outside to the nearby Cedar River.

'Last September, a geyser shot through the floor from the hydraulic pressure,” said Jeff Koffron, a facilities maintenance supervisor for Cedar Rapids. 'The water will come up through the ground, so we are trying to relieve the pressure.”

During the 2016 flood - in which the Cedar River crested at 21.9 feet on Sept. 27 - crews worked around the clock to sweep water to pumps so the City Hall basement wasn't inundated, causing more damage, Koffron said. The basement has been closed since that time, but work is underway to repair and reopen the space. Contracts call for work to be finished by May 15.

The building, which opened in 1933 at 101 First St. SE, had been used as the federal courthouse until the flood of 2008. At the time of the flood, City Hall was housed in the Veterans Memorial Building on May's Island. It had been there since 1927, but was heavily damaged by floodwaters.

After the flood, a new federal courthouse was constructed and in 2012, City Hall officially opened in its new building.

City leaders - while understanding the risk of potential groundwater flooding - quickly recognized the potential for the basement as a functional space.

'We looked at the basement and it was a very underused space when this was the federal courthouse, so we started imagining what it could be,” said Sandi Fowler, assistant city manager in Cedar Rapids, who oversaw the conversion from courthouse to City Hall. 'We turned it into conference room spaces the public would have easy access to. It's nice for general meetings to have a central location.”

The ground level features 10 conference rooms, a computer lab, training room, fitness room and an employee breakroom. The city laid out the building so higher value services weren't on the lowest level, Fowler said.

Still, 2016 marked the second time the basement has been closed for an extended period of time since the city moved there in June 2012.

Flooding closed the basement for nearly a year from mid-2013 to mid-2014, Fowler said. During repairs, steps were taken to better protect the basement, such as using epoxy flooring and sealing places in restrooms where water was coming in, she said.

'We are getting smarter each time on how to recover faster,” Fowler said.

This time around, new techniques - like the training room channel and three new sump pits, as well as new materials - are being used.

Contracts covering work for wallboard materials, wallboard installation, painting, epoxy floor repair, fitness floor repair and sump pit installation were approved at City Council meetings Jan. 24 and Feb. 14. The total amount awarded in the six contracts was $178,314.

In the City Hall basement, crews have been working to gut old drywall and expose the inner frame of the wall. Weep holes are being drilled into metal studs to allow water to drain and not pool inside the wall, guarding against mold. Waterproof paint is to be used to coat walls and a waterproof sealer will be used on joints. A magnesium-based floor board will protect the lower portions of the wall.

'The goal is when and if water comes in, the basement will be waterproof to 2 feet,” Koffron said during a walk-through of the space last week.

City Council member Scott Olson noted during the Jan. 24 City Council meeting he received questions about why the city is acting, in effect, as the general contractor on the project.

'I've had a couple contractors ask me, ‘When was the city getting into being a general contractor?' ” Olson said. 'As the project grew, a couple contractors felt we should have packaged it and put it out as a contract.”

Brent Schlotfeldt, Cedar Rapids Facilities Maintenance Manager, responded by saying the project evolved over time and became more complex, which prompted the city hire out the jobs individually.

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