Leaking Mississippi Valley State U. Building, 8 Years Old, Faces $13-Million in Repairs

Leaks, mildew, and floors that don’t align with one another have kept an eight-year-old administration building at Mississippi Valley State University wrapped up in plastic and litigation, according to an astonishing article in the The Clarion-Ledger.

The newspaper, in Jackson, Miss., reports that the $12-million, 98,000-square-foot building leaked from the time it opened in 1999. By 2003 mildew had developed inside the walls. And the university noticed, the paper reports, that “some floors stuck out as much as two to three inches over others.”

The building was closed and its occupants were moved to trailers and the old administration building. In 2005 the state sued the contractor, Inman Construction, and the architecture firm, Johnson McAdams, but the case was settled out of court last year for $3.5-million—even though repairs, originally estimated at $4.6-million, are now expected to cost $13-million (not counting the cost of the trailers and other temporary arrangements). The state’s Bureau of Buildings oversees construction on the campus.

The university now expects the building to be usable by 2010.