When will Czech museum move? Waiting game continues

Customers sitting down for a cut and style at Village Hair Design often ask the same question.

“Everyone wants to know when the museum is going to be moved,” said Janyce Lint, owner of the salon at 65 16th Ave. SW. “That's the big talk.”

One month after the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library was slated to relocate from the banks of the Cedar River, a new moving date is still unknown, but interest remains high, museum officials and Czech Village business owners say.

“I get phone calls and emails all the time,” museum spokeswoman Diana Baculis said. “People are still curious.”

Initially, the delay was weather-related; too much rain made the road built for the planned April 26 move too muddy.

“If those wheels sink, there's no getting it out with 1,700 tons of weight,” Baculis said. “The road has to be dry.”

Eastern Iowa finally experienced a string of sunny days last week, but moving issues by then had become more complex.

FYI

FYI

See live views of the site's progress at: www.ncsml.org

Jeremy Patterson Structural Moving & Shoring, of Washington, Iowa, which is conducting the move, determined that the back side of the building was 53 tons heavier than the front.

The solid concrete arches, built with the same dimensions and seemingly same construction, were inexplicably heavier on the river side, Patterson spokesman Rod Scott said.

After consultations with engineers and structural moving experts, Patterson decided to reinforce the frame built for the move. Extra wheels also were added in the middle and rear of the building.

“We were concerned that the lighter side of the dollies would race ahead of the heavier side and twist the building,” Scott said.

Steel beams, 37- to 38-feet in length, were brought to Iowa and interlaced between the main beams to stiffen the frame.

The added bracing and steel support increased the weight estimate of the building from 1,400 tons to 1,740 tons.

Scott said most of the dollies are now in place and additional dirt was brought in and compacted to ready the road for the 480-foot move.

Patterson was returning Tuesday to Iowa from a job in New Orleans with additional jacks that will be used once the two-day move is done, Scott said.

After the building is moved, it must be elevated and placed on the foundation/parking garage that will sit under the museum.

Scott said 12-foot-high cribbing towers will be built and the steel bracing removed before the building is rolled and lowered onto the foundation, a process that takes about two weeks.

Interest in the work happening at the museum has resulted in increased foot traffic and vehicle traffic in Czech Village, which is still recovering from the Flood of 2008, Lint and other business owners said.

“I see people drive down there and look at it all the time,” said Al Zindrick, owner of Al's Blue Toad, 86 16th Ave. SW.

Zindrick said that public fascination in the move, along with the start of tourist season, has carried over to an increase in business at his restaurant.

Customers remain curious about when the museum will be moved, but Zindrick is in no hurry to see the process rushed.

“You get a snag here and a snag there. You don't want to screw it up,” he said. “That's a big move.”