Roebling workshop restoration could wrap by December
Progress on the restoration of John Roebling’s historic wire rope workshop on Rebecca Street in Saxonburg is proceeding on schedule and could finish by as soon as December, according to Borough Manager Steven May.
“The wire rope workshop has the new foundation under it. They’re finishing the brickwork,” May said. “They could potentially pull it off by December.”
Slippery Rock-based Grossman Construction is leading the structural restoration of the workshop, which has been sinking into the ground for years. During the 19th century, Roebling, the borough’s founder, used the workshop to experiment with the invention that became instrumental to the construction of suspension bridges worldwide.
May said the borough will not rush the process, especially if winter brings a large amount of snow. He said snow could seriously affect the restoration, which relies on using the original materials and methods used to construct the building in the 19th century, including clay, straw and horsehair.
“If it starts to snow, we don’t want to push them, because with the clay walls, they’d have to set up at a special temperature,” May said. “If it doesn’t cure and heat, it’s not going to work. It would just thaw right out.”
