City Hall repair gets even pricier

From the NY Post:

The cost of renovating City Hall is going through the roof.

More major structural problems have been discovered in the 200-year-old building that will drive up the cost of repairs and upgrades from $123.8 million to just under $150 million, The Post has learned.

Mayor Bloomberg authorized raising the repair budget by another $25 million about two weeks ago after being told that concrete in the roof deck of the rotunda was crumbling and the wire mesh supporting it was severely corroded at several locations.

The mayor gave the green light to replacing the failing concrete, a task that will have to be done manually in confined quarters because interim patch jobs weren’t holding, the source added.

The job is so difficult that it may not be completed until the end of Bloomberg’s administration in December 2013.

A reporter who toured the roof area above the building’s third floor was able with his bare hands to pull away small chunks of concrete said to date back to work done in 1917.