Topeka ? It’s not quite to the stars. There are too many difficulties.

The “Ad Astra” statue, depicting a Kansa Indian and destined to top the Statehouse, remained earthbound Tuesday, as engineers and construction workers tried to solve a problem involving the bolts meant to keep it on its lofty perch.

A crane moved “Ad Astra” into place Monday afternoon as hundreds of people watched, only to lower the statue a few hours later. Another attempt to put the statue into place wasn’t expected until Thursday afternoon.

“We’re not going to fly the statue up today,” Gregg Lynch, project manager for the contractor, J.E. Dunn Construction Co., said Tuesday. “We’re going to do this right.”

The statue, by Salina sculptor Richard Bergen, depicts a loincloth-clad Kansa with his bow drawn and arrow aimed at the north star. Its name comes from the state motto, “Ad Astra Per Aspera,” Latin for, “To the Stars Through Difficulties.”

The delay disappointed a crowd of about 50 people who gathered Tuesday outside a construction-site fence on the Statehouse grounds.

“But the important thing is that it gets up there and gets up there right,” said Chuck Sodergren, a retired school administrator from Topeka who also saw Monday’s statue raising. “I think with any project, you have little problems. The important thing is that you take care of them.”

Seventeen bolts are supposed to connect a 2-inch thick plate at the base of the statue to another 2-inch plate at the top of a tower on the dome. The statue weighs about 4,100 pounds and stands more than 20 feet tall.

The holes in the statue’s plate and the holes in the dome tower’s plate were slightly off. That meant five of the 17 bolts, five-eighths of an inch in diameter, wouldn’t tighten enough. The two plates were close to touching when the problem was discovered.

“We had about an eighth of an inch to go,” Lynch said.

Both plates and the bolts are made of stainless steel, and nuts are welded on the upper side of the statue’s plate, inside “Ad Astra,” where they can’t be reached.

Steelworkers study the underside of the Ad

Lynch said stainless steel bolts tend to fuse as they are threaded into a stainless steel plate. Workers had to cut the problem bolts.

“We knew it was always a possibility,” Lynch said. “It could be off a ten-thousandth of an inch or a thousandth of an inch.”

On Tuesday, the statue first was held a few feet above ground, then turned on its side on a flatbed truck so workers could remove the remaining problem bolts. They managed to remove pieces of three of the five bolts, but needed special equipment for the last two.

After removing the bolts, workers were to rethread the holes for them in the statue’s base, then reattach the bolts.

Lynch said the state is using stainless steel because it is more durable than regular steel.

¢ 6News video report: Ad Astra to stay grounded for a few more days¢ PhotogalleryRecent stories:¢ 6News video report: Ad Astras’ bolts keep statue grounded¢ What goes up comes back down¢ To the Statehouse through difficulties (10-6-02)Archived stories:¢ ‘Ad Astra’ begins 50-city Kansas tour (09-23-02)¢ Legislator seeks statue opinion (08-31-02)¢ Capitol statue coming in October (08-10-2002)¢ Statue becomes lightning rod on stump (07-24-02)¢ Governor vetoes obstacle to dome statue (05-22-2002)

“It’ll probably last longer than the building,” he said. “Regular steel does rust.”

Ben Bauman, spokesman for the Department of Administration, acknowledged that when the statue goes up again, it could come down just as quickly as it did Monday.

“It’s possible you could put it up there and maybe 16 of the 17 bolts might work,” he said.

Lynch said the cost of raising the statue will not increase because, “It’s our risk.”

Initiated in 1988, the project’s cost eventually reached $1.6 million, including work on the dome, casting the statue and building a new plaza on the south Capitol grounds. Private donations are expected to provide at least $1.5 million.