THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 15, 1994 TAG: 9412150418
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BUXTON LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
In 1927, four teenagers climbed into a wooden box, carrying brushes and buckets of black and white paint. Ropes and wooden tackle riggings suspended their platform from the 208-foot-tall tower. A Chevrolet hooked to a rope pulled the workers up and down the brick beacon.
In three weeks, the local boys had painted the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.
``It wasn't a big deal then. Just routine work whenever the outside started looking dirty,'' said Rany Jennette, 73, a National Park Service ranger whose father supervised the lighthouse from 1919 to 1937. ``They tied a line from the paint box to the rear bumper of Dad's car. Didn't clean anything on the lighthouse first or really even prepare. Those guys just hung there in that 20- by 6-foot box and painted all day.''
Technology has changed the process considerably since then. Specially trained painters from Florida now rappel from cables attached to the lighthouse balcony. High-pressure spray guns have replaced paint brushes.
And policy has made the project much more complicated.
This fall, federal officials spent three months just picking the paint.
They had hoped to finish the lighthouse's face-lift by mid-November.
Instead, work won't even begin until March 27.
``We have run into a lot of technical snags and had to change some of the painting guidelines,'' Andy Kimos said Wednesday. A lieutenant with the U.S. Coast Guard's civil engineering unit in Cleveland, Ohio, Kimos is overseeing the painting project. Although the National Park Service owns and operates the 124-year-old tower, Coast Guard crews oversee its navigational aids: the light itself, and the tell-tale spiral stripes.
``It's worth a delay to think this whole thing out and do it right from the beginning,'' Kimos said. ``No one's really out there at the lighthouse now, anyway. And we'll still be done by the time tourist season begins.''
Before workers can start repainting the bricks, they have to scrape away old, peeling paint. Some officials suggested propelling walnut shells at the sides as scouring agents. Others wanted to use water jets to clean the structure.
Coast Guard engineers chose American Lighthouse Restoration Co. of Florida to do the job. The company, which had submitted the low bid, agreed to use powerful water guns to wash the lighthouse. But after seeing the proposal, Kimos sent it back to the drawing board.
``My biggest concern in this project is the lead-based paint which is on that tower now,'' said Kimos. ``With water jets, flakes of that paint would have flown off the site. Our contract said workers have to contain all of the paint chips.''
So the Florida firm came back with an alternate plan: It would scrape the structure by hand, attaching vacuum hoses on the scrapers to suck up straggling flakes. The company also promised to enclose the tower in canvas or plastic - and line the ground below just in case.
When workers have removed the offending lead-based paint completely, they will encase the scrapings in concrete and bury that package in a landfill.
``I don't want any risk of harming the environment,'' Kimos said. ``We're going to make sure all that old paint is contained in sealed drums and disposed of properly.''
Once Coast Guard engineers had resolved the paint-scraping process, they had to approve the paint. The Florida restoration workers selected and ordered one brand. But Kimos thought that type was too thin. So he sent back the batch and chose an acrylic latex. At least 170 gallons will be needed.
``They'll probably put all of one color on first, then go over it with the other color. We're requiring a primer plus two top coats,'' Kimos said. ``Before they put any on, they'll have to send sample cans of paint to our lab so we can test it and verify that it meets all of our specifications.
``We had some problems with the paint at Cape Lookout Lighthouse running, and colors beginning to bleed. We want to make sure Cape Hatteras doesn't have to go through that. But this has slowed the project even more.''
Early last week, Kimos finally approved the paint. But when he read the label, he was in for another disappointment. The repainting would have to be delayed yet again.
The paint could be applied only in temperatures above 50 degrees.
It will take five crew members about three weeks to complete the job, Kimos said.
Federal budgets include about $70,000 for the repainting project. When the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse last got a paint job in 1982, it cost taxpayers $18,500. MEMO: Sidebar also on page B1 of the North Carolina edition.
CAPE HATTERAS LIGHTHOUSE
Built: 1870 at Buxton on the Outer Banks.
Height: 208 feet, the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States.
Stairs: 248 spiraling steps.
Visitors: Average 2,000 people per day during summer; about 150,000
annually.
Tours: Lighthouse is closed during winter, but visitors' center and
museum remain open daily. Free tours are offered all summer. For more
information, call the National Park Service (919) 995-4474.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by DREW C. WILSON, Staff
The waves that delight surfers worry the people trying to preserve
the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Fending off the sea, and giving the
beacon a new paint job, are challenges for engineers. Does it need
painting? Look closely and you'll see the chipping and fading.
by CNB