Lincoln Memorial Reflecting pool history, volume, and repair costs

Steve Goodale aka "Swimming Pool Steve" who has a lifetime of swimming pool (and concrete) experience posted an update on this YouTube channel about the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. It includes a history of its construction and various restorations, plus a correction of the volume: 3.8M gallons.

Ironically that number is what he originally said when he first looked at this issue in May and did his own back of the napkin calculations for the volume based on an average 1 foot depth. But later on following lots of feedback in comments he started saying the volume was around 6.5M gal. This number is widely cited (before him) on Encyclopedia Britannica, news reports, etc. As it turns out they were all WRONG.

Here's what Britannica says:

Why was that? Because during the major restoration done as part of the 2009 ARRA act (project began November 2010) they added 6 inches of concrete reducing the depth across the entire pool. It went from 18 inches deep at the side to 12 inches, and 30 inches deep in the middle to 24. That knocked a whopping 2 million gals off the volume. This post restoration 2018 EPA permit NPDES Permit No. DC0000370 states the volume at ~4.5 million gallons. Geometric calculations based on the revised depths I mentioned before would come to ~3.8 million gallons. The difference is apparently due to additional underground reserve storage tanks and the volume of all the pipe work that circulates water through the pool.

It is also interesting to hear from Steve about how major the 2010 restoration was. As well as the additional concrete it added over 2000 piles to support the base which had repeatedly sunk into the ground since the 1920's construction. In addition a huge steel ring beam was added all the way round the perimeter, and to address water quality they added the nano-bubbler system, additional plumbing, and changed the water source from city treated water which has a lot of phosphates to water from the adjacent tidal basin. All this for $34M which would adjusted for inflation would be $55M in 2026 dollars.

Now compare that to the failed simple drain, clean, and paint job just completed for a reported $18M. Last time there was a drain and clean in 2012 it cost just $100,000. So the cost of drain and clean should have been almost none of the recent $18M charge which means the remainder was all or substantially all for the paint? That works out to around $50 per square foot which sounds like the worlds most expensive paint job - about the same as the cost of a 24-caret gold leaf finish which frankly I'm surprised POTUS didn't request (or he did and they stopped him).

Frankly its an obscene amount for a failed job that American tax payers will have to pay more for to fix because its failure has been blamed, without any substantiation, on vandalism.