Elevator Update

The Commonwealth’s Department of Capital Asset Management (DCAM), the state agency in charge of all buildings, held a “pre-bid conference” here today for vendors interested in bidding on the new elevator that is to be installed in the courthouse this winter. Because the accessibility of this building has been limited at best for so many years, the Architectural Access Board is requiring the state to go forward with the elevator installation even though the building is expected to be vacated in another two or three years when the new judicial facility is completed. This new elevator will originate in the employ parking lot in the place now occupied by the side entrance. That entrance consists of a wooden door at the top of a half dozen steps. The elevator will pick up passengers in the parking lot and have two stops: one at that first floor and the next on the second floor. Because the first floor is on two different levels, passengers being discharged will be able to go straight ahead towards the jury room. But those going to the lower level of the first floor (the registry, housing court, rest rooms), will have to travel over a slalom-like ramp that twists its way through existing registry space. While the elevator won’t impinge on any registry space, the ramp will, so we’ll be moving some furniture and people around in the coming months. Although nothing is definite, the last I heard as a proposed start time is this coming January.