Damage blamed on wall work [Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.]

Dec. 31--Terry Woodward's plans to spend up to $2 million to renovate the 130-year-old Bates Building at 101 W. Second St. into an upscale condo complex with retail on the ground floor have suffered a setback.

The back wall of the building has been removed to keep it from collapsing, Woodward said recently.

"The building sustained a lot of damage from all that pounding" from building a steel wall along the river from the RiverPark Center to McConnell Plaza in 2009, he said.

Hall Construction of Louisville and Richard Goettle Inc. of Cincinnati drove 3,000 strips of piling ranging from 30 feet to 95 feet long and 18 inches wide and a half-inch thick into the riverbed in 2009.

Woodward said he's convinced that the riverfront work damaged the building he bought in March.

"It had become structurally unsound," he said. "The back wall was pulling away from the building. It had some cracks before, but we could have repaired that damage. This became too much to repair."

Woodward said, "Almost every building down there has been damaged by the vibrations."

Steve Jarvis, who owns buildings at 111 and 113 E. Second St., has been complaining for the past two years about damages he says those buildings sustained.

"I think it's up to around 15 (damaged) buildings now," he said this week. "Some owners are just now finding the damage. I keep seeing new cracks in my buildings."

See Damage/Page A2

Phil Clark, who owns the Newberry-Wile Building at 101-105 E. Second, said, "We've had a little damage on the third floor. It seems like the higher you go, the more damage there is. We hope it's just cosmetic. But we're concerned about further damage."

He said tile floors have cracked, doors are going in and out of kilter and grout is working its way out from between tiles.

"It's an older building (sections were built in 1881 and 1889), but it was renovated 20 years ago," Clark said.

Buildings on the north side of Second Street "are really opening up," Jarvis said."My damage was cosmetic, not structural, but it was still $30,000 worth of damage. I live in the building at 113 E. Second. I restored the tin ceilings and hardwood floors. I did all that and then, this happened."

He said, "You could feel the building at 111 E. Second shaking when they were driving pilings. It sounded like jackhammers were being used in my basement. I've talked to everybody I could find to try to get something done, and I still haven't had any satisfaction."

City Attorney Ed Ray said in an e-mail, "It is the contractor's responsibility to address any claims for damages. In this instance, the contractor has turned the claims over to their insurance company to be investigated and adjudicated in accordance with their policy. As part of the process, the insurance company has had an engineering firm inspecting and evaluating claims here in Owensboro. The city has continued to be in contact with the contractor and the contractor's insurance company to make sure that process is moving forward."

Larry Conder, who owns several historic buildings downtown with his wife, Rosemary, said, "We filed a claim more than a year ago about The Crowne (107 E. Second). It was all superficial, cracks in the plaster. We couldn't find any structural damage."

He said, "We settled with the insurance company a little over two months ago. It's really difficult to determine damages."

Conder said because of damages to other buildings in that block, "it wouldn't surprise me if there wasn't damage to the parking garage," which is on the river side of the block.

"The parking garage has some cracks, and some of the support beams have shifted," Jarvis said.

After the Messenger-Inquirer contacted City Manager Bill Parrish for a comment, he asked Ted Lolley, project manager for the river wall, and City Engineer Joe Schepers to inspect the garage on Thursday.

"They do not have any concerns related to any structural elements," Parrish said. "It looks like what you would expect to find in an 18- to 20-year-old parking garage. The only maintenance issues expressed were to replace the caulking, which was budgeted for last year and should be completed by the end of this spring and/or summer."

Mayor Ron Payne said Hall and Goettle "inspected all the buildings before they started construction, and they had seismographs around town. They were going to stop work if it (vibrations) reached a certain level."

A Messenger-Inquirer article from 2009 says, "the riverfront project is continuously monitored for vibrations by four seismographs that measure ground movement. If movement of the ground reaches just 10 percent of what is considered too much, the seismographs automatically alert Schepers, Lolley and a construction company official by cell phone."

If there are damages, Payne said, "It's the responsibility of the contractors and their insurance companies. Every claim will be addressed by the insurance companies."

"It would be prudent to file a claim for damages and have it work through the insurance process," Parrish advised downtown property owners who have damages.

"I'm going to file a claim for damages," Woodward said. "The company doing the work took pictures of all the buildings before they started the work on the riverfront, so I have before and after photos."

Having to replace the rear wall "was unexpected," he said, "but I've learned that there are no real surprises with old buildings. I hope we can rebuild the wall with the original brick. While we're doing this, I hope to change the windows on the back. But we have to wait for approval from Frankfort. It's set us back a little, but I'm not sure how long."

The building was originally T.S. Anderson'sOwensboro Savings Bank & Trust, "the Bank of the Common People." It opened June 16, 1882, completed at a cost of $15,000.

The building had only two floors then. The third was added for apartments sometime between 1905 and 1910.

Keith Lawrence, 691-7301, klawrence@messenger-inquirer.com

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