HVAC Solution Prevents Corrosion in Statue of Liberty

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In keeping with our recent focus on things like corrosion and microbes in the HVAC industry, we present this quirky new item from last year: The Statue of Liberty was in dire need of an inner makeover owing to the salty-moist environment in which she stands. This was accomplished in HVAC fashion via the installation of two new cooling towers from Delta Cooling Towers. The trick? The towers are plastic. Plastic doesn’t corrode. This is a good thing!

It all started early last year — well, all except the devolution of the decade-old, steel-clad cooling towers inside Lady Liberty to “a state of rust and ruin” (“Status of Liberty Chills with Plastic Cooling Towers,” The Chief Engineer). John Culkin, president of C&S Building Services in Farmingdale, New York and a long-time workers with the National Park Service, which maintains the Statue of Liberty, was the man who headed up the team of HVAC technicians that installed the new towers beginning in March.

“We needed a corrosion-proof cooling tower,” he said. “Even the stainless steel towers they had out there could not survive the elements. All the fittings and nuts and bolts had rotted out. We wanted a maintenance free solution for a wet, salty environment” (“Statue of Liberty Upgrades to Plastic,” Delta Cooling Towers).

He knew of Delta’s “factory assembled, non-corrosive, high-density Polyethylene (HDPE) cooling equipment,” which they have been making since 1971, and, as the Chief Engineer explains, he “knew from experience that the plastic cooling towers were easy to maintain and impervious to harsh chemicals, bitter environments and pH deviations” (Chief Engineer).

The plastic towers are also much lighter than metal ones, which solved another problem: the prohibitive monetary cost associated with transporting the necessary big crane or cranes to Liberty Island in order to install the towers.

“The motivating factor was the corrosion proof aspect,” he said, but “The biggest thing is the plastic towers don’t weigh as much as stainless steel. You don’t need big rigging. That kind of rigging equipment would be difficult to get to the island.”

Delta described the overall process in a press release:

Over the span of six weeks, Culkin and the five-member C&S team installed a 250-ton Premier tower to cool the museum at Liberty Island, while a smaller 70-ton Paragon tower was installed to cool the interior space of the Statue of Liberty. HVAC service technicians performed a controls upgrade to the HVAC system including replacing pumps, disconnect switches, and all steel piping on the outside of the statue.

We would have liked to title this post “HVAC Industry Rescues Liberty,” but we thought that would be over the top. But you get the idea. It’s nice to see our industry making this kind of news.

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Matt Cardin
Goodway Blogging Team

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