Problem with rain is draining

Ben Godar

Rain might not come frequently in Burbank, but police and fire

officials have learned it can still cause problems.

When the two-level parking structure at the Police and Fire

Headquarters was built five years ago, the concrete used was not

sealed.

Over time, rainwater soaked through the concrete, mixed with

casing chemicals and leaked on several cars parked on the first

level, said Officer Steve Berdrow, the building manager.

Though the structure houses department cars and officers’

personal cars, Berdrow said most of those stained were personal

vehicles. He had no estimate of how many cars were damaged since the

facility opened in 1998, but said most were caught early and did not

sustain permanent damage.

In February, the city hired Best Roofing and Water Proofing of

Gardena to put an epoxy seal on the concrete for $374,154, city

officials said.

Because of delays caused by rainy weather, the work was not

completed until earlier this month, said Gordon Crawght, marketing

director for the contractor.

But the end of that project did not mean the end of the problems

in the parking structure.

The new epoxy seal is so smooth that cars slipped trying to climb

the steep ramp that exits on to Orange Grove Avenue during rains

earlier this month.

Best Roofing will be recoating the ramp to give cars more

traction, which Crawght said should be completed in the next two to

four weeks.

He said the work done was followed to the city’s specifications.

“As contractors, when we’re hired to do a job like this, we have

little or no ability to change specifications like this,” he said.

While the unsealed concrete has caused several nuisance problems,

Berdrow said he believes it was ultimately more cost-effective to

wait and use the current product rather than using the cheaper but

lower-quality sealant offered by Kajima Construction Services, the

contractor that built the facility.

“We’d have been right back where we started from,” he said. “The

material we would have put down wouldn’t have lasted until today.”