$350k Could be Spent to Repair the Battery because of Hurricane Michael

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CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - More than $350,000 could be spent on repairing The Battery from damages done by Hurricane Michael.

The construction company hoping to repair it says it’ll cost $356,976 and their contract proposal is going before Charleston City Council on Tuesday.

Hurricane Michael was different from previous storms, according to Frank Newham, the city’s engineering project manager. That’s because with Michael the waves were hitting the wall straight on. With storms like Irma, those waves were coming more at an angle.

When those waves crash, they damage the concrete posts allowing salt water to gets in to the steel bars that hold everything together. The water then rusts those bars. When that happens, the bars expand and break the concrete, which leads to structural problems.

As part of this emergency repair, the focus is on about 900 feet of the wall, and it's being done to make sure the city fixes it before any problem pops up. The city is also working on redoing the whole wall as part of a separate project. The first phase of those repairs are in the design and permitting process and will focus on about 850 feet of the wall. That'll take about a year. To redo the whole wall, it’ll take about five to six years.

The battery itself will also be taller when all is said and done. The lower part of the Battery will be raised two-and-a-half feet. This is to take into account sea level rise.

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