UPDATE August 27 – No Further Water Shut Downs Related to the Lobby Plumbing Project Expected.

We are pleased to announce the plumbing portion of the project has reached final completion today, Thursday August 27th. We have been informed no further water shutdowns are anticipated related to the work being done.

Over the next 4 weeks, the General Contractor will be turning their complete focus to reconstruction and demobilization. Once the lighting and ceiling over the lobby have been finished, they will begin tearing down the scaffolding. Barring any unforeseen problems or complications, we expect them to be completely done and gone by Friday September 25th.

If there are any changes, we will spread the word. For the duration of the project, we will post regular updates via e-mail with our weekly “PT News and Updates” and on our website at www.ptcondo.com. If you are not on our e-mail list, and would like to join, please send a request to parktowercondo@dkcondo.com.

Once again, we thank all our residents for your extraordinary patience and understanding through what was a very trying and aggravating process. We have been pleasantly surprised and grateful to receive so much positive feedback, and notes and letters of support.

Thank you.

August 26 – We are pleased to report the project is running modestly ahead of schedule.

Despite the unknown conditions and other surprises found when the lobby and party room ceilings were opened, the contractor now expects to have the lobby cleared out before the end of September.

They have been very close with the plumbing. AS OF THE DRAFTING OF THIS UPDATE – Wednesday August 26th – they still anticipate being done with the plumbing this week, by 5pm on Thursday August 27th. There is a slim possibility they will need a partial or whole building shutdown on Monday August 31st. But the latest indications are, chances are good we are all done this Thursday. Going forward, we expect the City of Chicago Plumbing inspector to sign off on the completed work – and barring any surprises – at that point no further partial or full building shutdowns are expected related to this project.

Fortunately, the workers have run into no additional surprises or unknown conditions recently. But they continued to confront a lot of waste water coming down the drains, despite the water being off. As the area of lines they were installing came together and narrowed, this condition escalated and caused a lot of interference with completing their daily tie-ins. Nonetheless, due to their planning and patience, they were able to work around these conditions and get the final lines installed and tied in.

Elsewhere, the General Contractor is fast on the heels of the plumbers with reconstruction. The party room and weight room should be fully completed by the end of the week. Upon completion of the party room, our staff expects to perform some flooring repairs due to leaking, but that should take no more than a couple days to complete.  Throughout most locations above the lobby where the plumber has completed their work, carpenters and electricians have already installed the ceiling frames, conduit and lighting, and we expect drywall installation in these areas to begin next week as originally planned.

We expect major completion of the plumbing this week (by Friday August 28th), with the sub-contractor clearing out their remaining tools and materials next week. The General Contractor will frame in the remaining ceiling studs and lighting, and finish off with drywall. This is expected to be completed by Friday September 18th, followed closely by disassembly of the scaffolding in the lobby.

As any additional information comes available, we will keep residents informed. Fortunately, as the plumbing portion of the work comes to an end, we expect to end the avalanche of e-mailed announcements and alerts and resume the more normal weekly pattern for our regular News and Updates.

Now that we are on the homestretch, we can not thank Park Tower Residents enough for enduring the obvious aggravation these daily shut downs can cause. As a building ages, it is vital to consider and conduct work like this to avoid damages and even lengthier outages that can occur when plumbing ages and is ignored. Recent problems we addressed in these areas, and observations we made while completing the hot water riser replacements, made it pretty clear this work needed to be done. The patience and understanding on the part of PTCA Owners and residents has been extraordinary, and has gone a long way to help us accomplish this work.

At any time if you have any questions, as always please feel free to send us an e-mail.