<;ontinuing Controversies Campus Administrators Slowly Overcome Leaky Roof, East End Addition Frustrations It opened with a fanfa.e fo, the 1975 Vandal football season. The first game In the new $4 million ASUI Kibble Dome was an October 27 match against Idaho State University. The Vandals lost, but the Dome escaped blame and even went on to win two awards for structural design. Now the Dome is the subject of a maze of law suits, countersuits, and arbitration. The legal papers filed this summer over the Kibble Dome could cover the building's 4.1 acre roof - but even that couldn't stop the leaks that caused the suits. Its roof has leaked since it was a year old. The UI is claiming that the construction was substandard. It also maintains tha the contractor and consultant knew the roof was unrepairable as early as 1978, but still recommended patch-up jobs. The consultant says the contractor gave him the false
information about the problems. The contractor and its insurance company say the university agreed to cancel its five-year warranty in 1978, when it hired the consultant, but the university says it didn't. The conflicts were tied up in both district and federal court, as well as before an arbitrator, throughout the school year. The Dome was originally built of plywood over wood and metal joists, insulated with an exterior layer of spray-on foam, and sealed with a rubbery compound called Hypalon. The awards won by the Dome were for its unique design and not for the choice of roofing materials. In April 1978 a Wisconsin firm, RUPO Technical Services, did an infrared scan of the roof. It showed that 50 percent of the foam insulation was waterdamaged and that both the Hypalon and the foam were improperly applied and not the
SCOOPING OUT the foundation RECURRING THUNDERcon•tnac:tlon men begin work on SHOWERS hampered the re·
tbe E..t End Addition.
roofing of the Dome and made a •oggy me.. of the turf.
68 Leaky RooffEast End
correct thickness. The Dome's troubles didn't end when the entire roof was ripped off down to the joists and replaced with new plywood. The original plan called for covering the new plywood with two sheets of plastic to protect it and prevent leaking through the winter. A permanent replacement still hadn't been chosen and construction of it wasn't slated to begin until late spring in 1982. The top layer of plastic blew free in the fall winds, however, and the Dome leaked badly during football season rains. The plastic was replaced with asphalt-treated paper held down with nails and batten strips. The paper could become the base for the final roof covering the university selects. The university has already spent between $225,000 and $325,000 in labor costs alone. The cost of the ill-fated plastic was $14,000 for the first layer continued