Norfolk’s damaged MLK Memorial will come down until 2021 for repairs

Norfolk — Norfolk’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial will be temporarily taken down starting Thursday to allow crews to repair the badly deteriorated steel structure that holds up the 83-foot obelisk.

Damage to the 20-year-old monument, located in the center of the intersection of Brambleton Avenue and Church Street, was first noted Oct. 1.

A piece of the black granite face of the monument had fallen off of the top of the spire in recent weeks.

Engineers who inspected the monument earlier this month noted that the steel was badly deteriorated.

Now, the city says it will be taking the monument apart to work on the structural issues and that it won’t be back up until sometime early in 2021.

It’s not clear exactly what caused the damage. But city spokeswoman Lori Crouch said notes from the engineers indicated the steel that was used to build the memorial was only primed, not galvanized.

Galvanized steel is coated with zinc to strongly resist oxidization — that is, rust. Primed steel requires additional coatings to stave off rusting.

“The deterioration of the steel supporting the memorial’s granite panels is typical of what might occur in a 20-year old structure continuously exposed to the elements. It is uncertain as to whether a protective coating on the steel would have prevented the loss of the small top panels for much longer,” Crouch said in an email Tuesday.

She also wrote that 20 years is "about the anticipated lifespan for sealant and joint material in this type application and the city saw “a similar deterioration of the steel at the Armed Forces Memorial about the time the cruise terminal was constructed.”

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The effort to build the monument was started in the mid-1970s by Joseph Jordan, a major figure in Norfolk’s civil rights movement who became a General District Court judge and vice mayor.

Jordan, along with his family and other community members, spearheaded the effort to collect money to stand up the monument. It started with nickel and dime drives among school children, later enlisting corporate donors.

But he didn’t live to see it built. Jordan died in 1991. Construction on the memorial started in May 1999 by Reliable Builders Inc., and the memorial was completed in 2000.

The city had no role in building it, but took custody of it sometime in 2001 or 2002, said Rodney Jordan, the elder Jordan’s nephew and a member of the Norfolk School Board.

Jordan said his uncle had originally wanted the 83-foot-tall obelisk covered in aluminum or steel, but concerns about glare from the sun impacting drivers pushed them toward a dark granite instead.

Through at least the month of October, the northbound lanes of Church Street through the intersection will be closed, according to a release from the city, with crews working between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. More information is at tinyurl.com/mlkrestoration.

Ryan Murphy, 757-739-8582, ryan.murphy@pilotonline.com