In 1991 a special Task Force chaired by Peyton Lee asked Robinson Iron to visit Birmingham, Alabama’s Vulcan statue atop Red Mountain and assess its condition. This began a special kinship between the company and Vulcan that continues to develop.
The Vulcan Restoration
by J. Scott Howell

The Background - At 56 feet in height, Vulcan is the tallest freestanding cast iron sculpture in the world. He was cast in 1903 for display at the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904. The sculpture, Italian-born Giuseppe Moretti was commissioned by the Birmingham Commercial Club to create the statue as a means of advertising and promoting the ironmaking capability of the City. Moretti sculpted the plaster original in Passaic, New Jersey, which was then transported to the Birmingham Steel and Iron Company for casting purposes. After completion Vulcan was transported via rail to St. Louis, Missouri and erected for the World’s Fair.

In 1905, Vulcan was disassembled and transported back to Birmingham. He remained in a disassembled state until the fall of 1906 when he was erected at the State Fairgrounds in Birmingham’s West End. In 1938 Vulcan was placed on a stone pedestal at the top of Red Mountain where he remained as a powerful symbol of the City until the fall of 1999.

The Studies - When Vulcan was erected atop Red Mountain in 1938, the statue was filled to chest height with concrete in order to provide secure anchorage to the stone pedestal and lower its center of gravity. Unfortunately, the concrete ballast had a co-efficient of expansion roughly 20% greater than the cast iron skin which eventually caused the formation of cracks in the lower torso area of the statue. This coupled with severe bolt deterioration, caused much concern within Birmingham’s City government and citizens alike.

In 1991, two studies were performed on Vulcan at the request of the Vulcan Task Force and the City of Birmingham. The first study by Law Engineering recommended a cleaning and patching effort on Vulcan and did not address the problem of the concrete ballast. The second study performed by Scott Howell of Robinson Iron recommended the removal of the statue from the pedestal so that the concrete could be removed and the statue could be restored and re-anchored around a stainless steel armature system – much like the construction of the Statue of Liberty.

In October 1993 a third study was performed by Nick Veloz Conservator a nationally known from the National Park Service. The conclusion of this study corroborated those of Robinson Iron presented two years earlier. This led to a fourth study by Robinson Iron in the Summer of 1994 which detailed the methodology for the removal and restoration of the statue as well as the restoration of the 1938 stone pedestal.

The Crisis - As Vulcan’s cast iron skin absorbed the summer heat, new cracks continued to form. Some of these cracks began to propagate to the point where pieces of the statue began to spall, or fall away, from the statue. This alarmed City officials who elected to close Vulcan Park to the public in March of 1999.

On March 23, 1999 Sammy Wilson and Scott Howell scaled the statue and entered Vulcan’s interior through a small access hole in the head. They found a significant amount of deterioration in the bolts and fasteners – especially those at the junction between the left arm and the upper torso. On March 29, 1999 Robinson Iron recommended the removal of the statue from the pedestal as soon as possible.
For a behind-the-scene look at the Vulcan restoration click on the above symbol.