An error led new Columbus City Hall to close Thursday afternoon for maintenance
The new Columbus City Hall building on 1st Avenue closed Thursday because of a water leak.
Officials closed the building at noon on Thursday, according to a news release, so maintenance could resolve the problem. The building is expected to reopen for normal business Friday, Feb. 2.
A number of city government departments moved to the new City Hall building last summer, including Parks & Recreation, Finance, and Job Training.
The moves are part of the nearly $50 million project approved in September 2021 for the Columbus Consolidated Government to buy and renovate the Synovus buildings.
The water leak began after a maintenance staff member unscrewed the stop release when repairing a urinal in the men’s room, Columbus city manager Isaiah Hugley told the Ledger-Enquirer.
When the employee unscrewed the stop, he said, it released a lot of water.
“It was not a pipe or anything,” Hugley said. “It was simply an error by maintenance support.”
Crews were able to shut the water off and fix the problem the employee was working on, Hugley said. The issue has been repaired, and no more water has been released.
“All of the water was freshwater and not sewer at all,” he said.
The water leaked only on the third floor in certain areas of the building, Hugley said. Tarps were used to protect IT equipment. Computer access to the building and the phones were shut down to allow any wiring that got water in it to dry out, he said.
All calls to the building have been transferred to the 311 Center, Hugley said, which will take messages until the various departments are back up and running again.
The plan is to resume business Friday morning, he said. But if computer wiring or phone lines have not completely dried out, then departments in the building may not have access to them the first part of the day.
“We’ve got cleanup crews there,” Hugley said. “And they’re doing what they need to do to get it all cleaned up.”
