City Hall is blaming manufacturing defects for flaws in three new school buildings that opened for in-person classes on Sept. 8.

The city’s response to a Free Press query follows publication of an article in the Sept. 16-18 edition about the problems in the school buildings, including a partial malfunction in air conditioning at River City Middle and the two elementary schools, Cardinal and Henry L. Marsh III. River City Middle also had problems with gym floors and a broken elevator.

On the air conditioning, Robert Stone, who played a key role for the city in getting the schools built, confirmed that all three schools had problems, but he said it was not because of anything that was done during installation.

“The HVAC systems at each new school went through a thorough, rigorous, enhanced commissioning, inspection and testing process,” according to Mr. Stone, the city Department of Public Utilities engineering manager who was a leader on the Joint Construction Team that led the collective $147 million school development.

In an email provided to the Free Press, Mr. Stone stated that component parts in the heating, cooling and ventilation systems failed “in the 12 plus months since completion of construction” and “have needed to be repaired or replaced at each of the new schools. The most significant (issue) has been the failure of a compressor in one of the two chiller units at Cardinal.”

Mr. Stone said the issues are being handled “as normal warranty repairs by the equipment manufacturers and the mechanical subcontractors.”

Modern air conditioning systems, he continued, are complex and “integrate equipment and components from many different manufacturers. That is why we require and have both specific equipment manufacturer’s warranties and a general overall one-year project warranty.”

He added that AECOM, the private construction manager the city paid to ensure the job was completed on time and on budget, should not be blamed for such problems.

“AECOM’s responsibility as construction manager, along with the architectural and engineering team, is to ensure that the correct equipment is supplied to the job and is installed properly and is tested to ensure its start-up,” Mr. Stone stated.

On the River City gym floor, Mr. Stone stated that “water spilled on a small portion of the wood flooring in the main

gym while the mechanical subcontractor was performing scheduled coil cleaning maintenance on the rooftop air-handling unit located above.”

He stated that the spill was cleaned up, but “some water seeped into the wooden subfloor, which resulted in some cupping of the maple floor boards in the area of the spill. The general contractor has accepted responsibility and is in the process of having the affected area of the gym floor repaired.”

As to small gaps in the gym floor, Mr. Stone noted that the manufacturer, Action Floor Systems LLC, has explained that those are needed to allow the wooden floor to expand and contract based on temperature changes and are not defects.

In a paper included with Mr. Stone’s email, Don Brown, a flooring expert with the company, indicated that the gaps tend to disappear over time as the floor adjusts to the temperature norms.

Mr. Stone stated that Richmond Public Schools notified the Joint Construction Team of the elevator problem but has not submitted a warranty repair request to the city. He stated the warranty runs through Oct. 16 and would be enforced if an RPS request is received and if the warranty applies to the needed repair.