The scaffolding on the Revelstoke Courthouse dome is almost complete. Victoria-based Industrial Scaffold Services has been erecting the frame this week and will put a heat shrink-wrap over it in the next few days.
"It's a full enclosure so they can sandblast it," explained foreman Aaron Neale, who sweated away under a hot sun on June 6. "This is basically a structure for them to get at it and it's a structure for us to do a containment over it and keep the material off the building itself."
This will prepare the site for Mid-City Roofing, who will move in to put a membrane on the failing copper roof in the coming weeks.
City of Revelstoke public works director Darren Komonoski toured me around the site. He pulled down a hatch in a third floor hallway, leading us into the dome room. It's wood-framed with wooden slat flooring.
Inside, a giant glass pyramid dominates the room. It allows light from the windows to pass through into the stained glass ceiling in the courtroom.
We crawled out a window and toured around the roof, which has a commanding view of the neighbourhood.
Once you're up close, you can see the copper underneath the peeling green paint covering the roof. The copper is a dark grey colour caused by a chemical reaction from paint coverings that have been put on since it was completed nearly a century ago.
Once finished, the roof will be a 'cool mint' green, which is designed to mimic aging copper. It will be a slightly different colour than the existing powdery blue.
The target for completion is in July – but you know how construction deadlines go. Court was in session on Wednesday, so work was halted to prevent disrupting the proceedings.
Komonoski said the two-year delay to get the work started turned out for the better. The final cost was lower than expected and the city was able to get grants from Heritage B.C. ($25,000) and the Columbia Basin Trustn ($50,000). Mid-City won the contract to do the renovation for $200,245.