Old age didn't bring down the truck weigh station just west of Nebraska City on Nebraska 2. It was something more sinister: mold.
ALGIS J. LAUKAITIS / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Friday, April 4, 2008 7:00 pm
Old age didn’t bring down the truck weigh station just west of Nebraska City on Nebraska 2. It was something more sinister: mold.
The 1,000-square-foot building, built 12 years ago, will be torn down soon because of severe mold problems, said Tom Sands, operations manager for the state Department of Roads.
After the demolition, workers will build a new weigh station at the same site. The Nebraska City weigh station is one of five locations in the state equipped with weigh-in-motion sensors that allow faster checks of semitrailers.
“If we can stay on track, we hope to have it completed and open before winter,” Sands said. “We’re shooting for fall.”
The Roads Department closed the weigh station, three miles west of Nebraska City, in December after Nebraska State Patrol Carrier Enforcement officers reported seeing mold growing in the air registers.
Mold can cause nasal stuffiness, throat irritation, coughing or wheezing, eye irritation or, in some cases, skin irritation, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Patrol Capt. Gerry Krolikowski said the patrol could have operated the weigh station on a limited basis but decided not to expose the eight people who worked there to any potential health problems.
“We took the safe route and pulled the troopers out of there and reassigned them to portable units or to assist at weigh stations on the interstate,” he said
One trooper got checked out by a doctor, but there were no health problems associated with the mold, Krolikowski said.
“Certainly, you don’t want to chance it. That’s why we reassigned our people until things are remedied,” he said.
The Roads Department hired an environmental consulting company to investigate and it found mold along the baseboards and inside the walls.
Sands said the mold was caused by a broken water line under the building’s concrete slab, which had gone undetected for a long time.
“Basically, we had a wet floor leaking out of the wall boards,” he added.
Wind-driven rain also seeped through old windows and moisture got into wall spaces, Sands said.
Estimates to get rid of the mold problem were between $70,000 and $135,000 or about 80 percent of the price tag for a new building, Sands said.
“And there’s no guarantee that we would have the mold issue 100 percent resolved, which is a scary factor because you may have to go back and do it again,” Sands said.
Roads Department officials decided it would make more economic sense to tear down the mold-infested structure and build a new weigh station for $150,000 to $200,000.
Sands said the size of the building will stay the same. He said no new technology will be installed.
He said this was the first time the department has had a mold problem in one of its buildings.
Since the weigh station closed, Carrier Enforcement officials have been using portable scales to weigh trucks on Nebraska 2 and other nearby highways.
Krolikowski said it has caused some disruption of service.
“We like to keep that facility open as much as possible, (with Nebraska 2) being an expressway and the ever-increasing amount of traffic,” he said.
But Krolikowski said the potential health risk to troopers and drivers outweighed any inconvenience.
Reach Algis J. Laukaitis at 473-7243 or alaukaitis@journalstar.com.