Water-Damaged Phoenix Library to Stay Closed Until June

PHOENIX (AP) — Phoenix’s main public library won’t reopen until next June, nearly a year after it was heavily damaged by water from a corroded fire-sprinkler pipe that burst during a July monsoon storm.
City Manager Ed Zuercher (ZEHR’-kehr) also says inspection reports from recent years warned of pipe corrosion but that those reports weren’t shown to top officials.
Zuercher says officials are trying to determine why that wasn’t done.
He says the city can pay the estimated repair costs at $6 million to $8 million from reserves and insurance payouts.
The library has been closed since the July 15 storm damaged the 25-year-old building’s roof above the fifth-floor fire suppression system.
The city is expanding hours in branches closest to downtown and moving materials from the main library to branches.
Related News
From Archive

- 290-mile gas pipeline expansion proposed across Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina
- $227 million Garnet Valley water project advances, set to create 73,000 jobs in Nevada
- Pasadena, Calif., undergrounding project could take 500 years to finish
- Construction underway for $1.4 billion, 60-mile water pipeline in Chicago
- Worker dies after trench collapse at sewer project site in Norwich, Conn.
- Gehl and Mustang offer world’s largest skid loader
- Growing Pains and Gains
- Authorities investigating trench collapse that killed worker in Ashburn, Va.
- City of Albuquerque halts fiber optic construction in response to damage, complaints
- Pasadena, Calif., undergrounding project could take 500 years to finish
Comments