A non-profit community theater 10 New England Avenue, Summit, NJ 07901 908-273-2192
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Accessiblity Project:
Construction Status |
Project Overview
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- March 24, 2004
- On Wednesday afternoon, March 24, the City of Summit issued a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy Permit for the Playhouse Handicap Access building modifications and for the lift. The TCO allows us to use of the facility and specifies that the remaining outside building and site work must be complete by 25 April 2004.
March 12, 2004- The lift access path was completed on Wednesday, 3/10. The path was revised from the original drawings to flair the entrance at the curb cut to make wheel chair access easier. And on Friday morning, 3/12, we passed a lift and project inspection by Peter Kassana from Union County.
February 20, 2004- We've suspended construction so we can clean up the lobby for our production of The Imaginary Invalid.
February 18, 2004- The lift passed state inspection today. Unfortunately, because of the cold weather, the contractor has not been able to build the new walkway to the lift's outside door. Therefore we cannot use it for our February production of The Imaginary Invalid. We're still waiting for the township's inspectors to approve the plumbing, so we can't use the new bathroom either.
January, 2004- The contractor has finished painting, installing the doors, the lighting fixtures, etc. There are only a few items left to be completed -- eg, installing a mirror in the bathroom, replacing some molding, etc. The lift is now operational, although it took slighly longer to install than expected (so what else is new?). We are waiting for the state & township to do the final inspections of the lift and the plumbing.
December, 2003- Construction has resumed! The contractor finished installing the sheetrock by mid-December, and then started the finishing trim steps: painting, floor tiles, etc. The lift was delivered on 12/21, and the installers started putting it together on 12/22.
October-November, 2003- We passed the behind-the-walls inspection of the plumbing and electrical work. The contractor has started to install the sheetrook and insulation. However, we had to suspend construction from mid-October through November, to allow lobby access for our production of The Crucible.
September 14, 2003- The plumbers are still doing their thing. The electricans have finished. The contractor has installed the roof on the new addition, repaired the existing lobby roof, and fixed the rot under the eves. We expect to have the rough ("behind the walls") plumbing and electrical inspections next week. Assuming everything passes, the contractor can then start installing the insulation and sheetrock.
September 7, 2003- The plumbers have started to work. In particular, they've begun to install the "trash pump" in the furnace room floor. One of the challenges of adding a restroom on the east side of the building was how to connect its sewer line to the main stack on the other side of the building. If we used a normal gravity-fed sewer line, we'd end up with a sewer pipe running across the kitchen at chest level. This, obviously, was not a good idea. So instead the restroom drain line goes into a holding tank on the east side, and a pump on that tank pushes the ... um, "waste material" ... up and over the kitchen the west side of the building. And no, plumbers do not call these things "trash pumps". Plumbers use a much more descriptive name -- which we cannot use in a family-oriented web site.
August 30, 2003- The electricians have almost completed the first stage of the electrical work -- installing the behind-the-walls wiring, the boxes, relocating the air-conditioner feed, etc. The plumbers have started to cut into the walls for the water supply and vent lines.
August 24, 2003- The exterior walls are complete (except for the lift door and other final touches). The roof rafters and plywood sheeting are in place. The contractor has installed the subflooring for the new restroom, and has finished the rough interior framing for the restroom, landing, and costume closet. The electricians have started on the wiring. Unfortunately, we ran into a paperwork problem with our Union County grant for the purchase and installation of the lift. The good news is that the problem is easy to fix. The bad news is that it means that the lift cannot be installed until November.
August 15, 2003- The contractors have been moving right along on our project. The tower for the lift is almost complete. The accessible restroom has been framed and on the lower level, the cement floor has been poured in the expanded costume room. The site manager says they hope to finish the construction in about 4 weeks. However, the lift will not be available that early.
August 9, 2003- The exterior walls are up. The lower-level cement floor has been poured. Openings have been cut though the lobby wall for the lift doors, the new restroom, and the new downstairs store room.
July 31, 2003- If you passed by the Playhouse today, you would have noticed that the large trees and the air conditioning unit have been removed from the front of the building. A large hole has been dug and the pilings laid for the construction of the tower that will hold the lift. According to the site manager, the only thing that went wrong so far was a false alarm to the fire department caused by dust made by cutting through the old foundation walls!
