A new Justice Themis statue was reinstalled atop the McLennan County Courthouse in Waco Saturday morning.
The new statue is replacing the old 117-year-old zinc statue that was removed in July.
"It's an obvious thing that it's not there when you look at the building," McLennan County Judge Scott Felton said.
The new statue is made of aluminum and is one thousand pounds heavier than the original.
"If you could see it up close you could even see the hail dents of 117 years of her being up there were actually duplicated into the new statue. Every mark that was on the original one is on the new one," Mike Anderson, general manager of Montgomery Construction, said.
Montgomery Construction owner Charlie Montgomery said they expect the new statue to last 250 years.
Montgomery Construction spearheaded the operation to reinstall the statue. They planned for the reinstallment for months.
"When it goes up there, that high 170 feet in the air, you can't afford mistakes," Montgomery said.
A 12-vehicle convey followed the statue from Lorena to the courthouse in Waco early Saturday morning.
For Anderson, the installation of the new Themis statue has more meaning.
"Four generations of my family has been involved in this," Anderson said. "My granddad originally hung the scales after the 1953 tornado with nothing more than a ladder propped up against it and a person holding it at the bottom of the ladder."
In 1973, Anderson's father worked on the dome of the courthouse. In 2011, Anderson and his son worked on the courthouse the last time Themis was removed.
"I'm proud to be apart of it," Anderson said.
The operation from start to finish took about 6 months.
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