New Federal Courthouse hits another wall

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - A new monkey wrench has been thrown into the Federal Courthouse construction project. Will taxpayers be forced to foot the repair bill?

It was discovered just in the past few days, ice inside the walls of the new Federal Courthouse. It apparently starts on the 10th floor and stretches all the way down.

>> This isn't the first major problem during the construction of the courthouse

Tuesday afternoon we were there when Federal Judge William Skretney and the Federal Court Clerk spent two hours getting a firsthand look at the new problem from the inside. Afterward, they did not want to do any interviews, but the Judge said it's too early to say how serious the problem is and whether or not it will delay the opening of the courthouse again past August.

General Services Administration Spokesman Renee Miscione said, "Well, we're very much aware of the condensation problem and we have experts from both our own architecture team and our contractors team looking at the problem to determine what the cause is and what the resolution will be and we have every intent of resolving this problem satisfactorily before the building opens."

Mascaro Construction is the contractor. Cannon Design is the Construction Manager. Both refused to comment on Tuesday.

This is a whole different problem than the hose that was left on December, soaking the first five floors. The ice inside the walls may be a design flaw that could result in having to replace a lot of drywall and insulation, though one architect for the court system says this was designed to have a certain amount of moisture in the walls, and the insulation is water resistant.

The opening of the $137 million courthouse had already been delayed until about August because of a problem with the glass plates at the entrance.

Judge Skretny says he hopes to know more in the next few days. As for who will pay for it, apparently not the taxpayers because the contractor and subcontractors are insured and bonded.