CMA 2017 #24 · Agenda item attachment · Jan 30 2017

Cambridge Housing Authority MEMORANDUM TO: Michael Johnston FROM: Kevin Braga, Margaret Donnelly Moran, and Garrett Anderson DATE January 13, 2017 RE: Response to City Council Inquiry of 12/19/2016 on Response Time to Elevator Services Needs in Cambridge Housing Authority’s Elderly High-Rise Development with Specific Information on Recent Service Issues at Manning Apartments This memorandum provides a response to the City Council’s inquiry regarding the response time to elevator service needs at Cambridge Housing Authority’s Elderly High- Rise Developments with specific information on recent service issues at Manning Apartments. The specific equipment issue plaguing one elevator Manning Apartments during the period December 12 and December 27 has been fully resolved and the elevator has been working without incident since December 27. General Response Times for Elevator Service Calls CHA has 24 hour/7 day a week/365 day contract with United Elevators Company, a firm based in Weymouth, MA, to provide routine, preventative and emergency service to all the elevators in CHA’s portfolio. The contract has specific response time parameters including: 1. In response to passenger entrapments the firm is to be on-site one-half (1/2) hour during regular working hours and within one (1) hour during overtime periods. 2. For out-of-service elevators calls, the firm is to be on site within ninety (90) minutes. 3. For non-essential system malfunctions that do not constitute an operational or other safety condition, the firm is to be on-site during normal working hours of regular working days within four (4) hours of the request for service. 4. In the event that the out-of-service situation leaves no elevator in the building running, the performance time for service is #1 as noted above. The CHA closely monitors the firm’s performance, receiving service tickets from every visit, and monthly reports and verifies the firm meets the performance standards in the contract.

Summary of Service Time at Various Elderly Sites In response to the City Council Order, we reviewed the service records for the past six months. The chart below details the service calls at our larger elderly developments, noting the monthly average and the average per elevator in the building. Development Total Calls over 6 Month Period Average Monthly Calls Average Monthly Per Elevator in Building Daniel F. Burns 10 1.67 0.55 Lyndon B. Johnson 18 3.00 1.50 Manning Apts1 12 2.00 1.00 Millers River Apts 9 1.50 0.75 Russell Apts 12 2.00 2.00 Truman Apts 11 0.92 0.46 89 14.83 1.24 As you can see, elevators at each of our larger elderly developments are performing within a normal range of anticipated service calls and as previously noted United Elevator is providing service within the parameters of our contract with the firm. Specific Information on the Manning Apartments Elevators As noted in the City Council Order, there were recent issues at Manning Apartments that resulted in an extended period of time when one of two elevators in the building was out of service. A summary of events related to this recent occurrence is detailed below. Briefly, there are two passenger elevators at Manning Apartments which were comprehensively modernized in the last five years and are overhead gearless traction type elevators with a traveling speed of 450 feet per minute to reduce travel time in this tall building. After the 2010 modernization, there were indeed a high number of maintenance incidents after the elevator was placed into service but in the last two years the rate of maintenance failures of the elevators at Manning has been within normal range. Further it has not been the same part that fails each time the Manning elevator goes down, and a review of the maintenance history indicates most maintenance calls are resolved within hours of the reported failure with the exception of the most recent maintenance issue. This most recent issue in Car 1, which was ultimately determined to be an issue with the elevator safety sensor controls, started last Monday, December 12th, and continued with intermittent failures through Tuesday, December 13th at which time the Fire Department ordered it shut down until the needed repair could be made. The 1 Excludes the multiple calls related to the December 12 through December 28 issue as well as 17 construction-related service calls. The construction calls were related to locking out of service on various floors under construction (7); debris in elevator door track (4), service faults due to the machine room being too hot as equipment was being relocated (3), and calls for fire service (3).

elevator maintenance company staff were on site daily to find and resolve the source of the elevator failures and initiated a series of replacements in consultation with GAL, the manufacturer of the elevator controls equipment. This began with the replacement of all of the elevator “Tape Guides” on the elevator cab so the elevator sensor would properly sense the floor location magnets. When this failed to solve the intermittent problem, GAL recommended replacement of the elevator location safety sensor module, which was completed on 12/20. Unfortunately, after a day of operation, the elevator experienced a similar fault condition so the entire safety circuit board was recommended to be replaced. The ordering and replacement of this circuit board was delayed somewhat by the Christmas Holiday but it was received and installed on site on December 27th. Car 1 has subsequently operated without any faults or reported incidents. It should be noted that Car 2 did have one reported issue on January 4th and was returned to service the same day. During the construction period, an exterior hoist has been installed to facilitate construction and transport most construction personnel and equipment into and out of the building. A select group of approximately 25 construction supervisors and owner personnel (properly identified) do use the passenger elevators on a regular basis and additional construction personnel are authorized to use the passenger elevators on occasion when the exterior hoist is unusable due to high wind events, crane activities, or maintenance downtime. It should be noted that because the resident population during construction is currently approximately 60% of the occupant capacity of the building, staff estimate the load on the elevators is less than when the building is at full occupancy despite the use of the elevators by some construction personnel during the workday. Since only one passenger elevator is currently available for use, construction personnel have been directed to stay off the passenger elevators until the maintenance issue is resolved. Regarding the incident of paramedics being called and waiting for 10 minutes for the elevator neither the team supervising the construction or the operations staff have any information on that incident. In the event of a medical emergency, it is our understanding that the fire department can take control of the elevator cab to allow immediate use by first responders and elevator key is in the fire department knox box on site. As for stairwell access, there are two stairwells at Manning Apartments that go to every floor except for the areas under construction on the first and second floors. One stairwell is not under construction at all and is fully available for resident use at any time for any purpose. The other is currently under construction and is also available at any time for emergency egress for the residents, both stairwells provide emergency exit to the street and while the second floor and part of the first floor are under construction and not publicly accessible, these construction zone does not impede resident access and is not in the path to the street exits from the building. The emergency exits on Green Street and Franklin Street both exit to the street and into fenced construction zones and both have doors immediately across from the exit which open onto the street and are signed as emergency exits. The doors are locked from the

outside to provide security to the building but open from the inside like any emergency exit doors. These exit plans and operating procedures have been developed and maintained in close consultation with the Cambridge Fire Department and are reviewed and modified on an ongoing basis as life safety systems are altered and improved during the construction process.