Capitol offices evacuated after structural problem found near rotunda

Several offices and storage rooms near the Capitol rotunda have been evacuated and closed off for the foreseeable future, but not because of concerns over damage to the inner dome of the Capitol, Department of Administration officials said Monday.

Administration spokeswoman Diane Holley-Brown said the rooms were vacated as a precaution after engineers discovered damage to internal partition clay tile walls, originally installed to function as firewalls, in the walls adjacent to the rotunda. Damage has caused some of the tiles to break loose, posing a potential safety risk.

“These areas are primarily located in small, difficult to reach areas,” Holley-Brown said in a statement. “Because of the potential safety issue, the General Services Division restricted entrance to certain areas until these partition walls are stable.”

The damage was discovered by WDP and Associates of Charlottesville, Virginia, the same engineering firm hired by the state in 2016 to determine the source of water damage to several panels on the interior dome.

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