New Haven Independent

Mike Brunelle (at right in photo) rolled a measuring wheel across the roof, comparing his figures with the ones in a city legal notice.

“Take it easy, I’ve seen them measured wrong before,” he told the city-hired architect who had led him there.

Brunelle, who owns C & M Exterior Renovation in South Windsor, was one of nine potential bidders who hoisted themselves up ladders Wednesday during a pre-bid meeting on a job to renovate three roofs at the Shubert. The city owns the building. It is hoping to get the three portions fixed up in a hurry before the theater season picks up again in the fall.

Two of the roofs are leaking already, said Sheri Kaplan, the theater’s director of operations. One roof lets water into a side stairwell; another lets water trickle into staff offices and a hospitality suite.

The third roof, above balcony seats in the theater, isn’t leaking yet, but Kaplan wants to see it replaced before it starts letting water in, too.

“It’s hard enough to sell those seats already,” joked Kaplan (at left in photo) of the balcony section.

The Shubert is staggering repairs on its roofs, she explained, “so they don’t all fail at once.”

The roof job under discussion Wednesday entails removing three flat roofs, getting rid of asbestos and replacing them. The job was designed by architect Martin Benassi (at center in photo at top of story).

Bidders have a week to decide if they want to take on the project: Bids are due back on July 30. Then they have 60 days from the start of the contract to finish the work. The roofs must last for 15 years.

In a Q & A session with Sebouh Asadourian, a city engineer, some were skeptical of the job.

“What you said is impossible,” scoffed a man named Rich who works for Silktown Roofing, Inc.

He was protesting what everyone agreed was limited access to the construction site. The city said the only access point would be a side alley to the right of the building’s façade. Roofers were concerned they’d have no way to get a “kettle” — a device for heating up asphalt — across to the furthest roof.

Benassi, the architect, said the city would consider accepting a “cold apply” repair job instead of a “hot” one that would require a kettle, though those adjustments would have to be worked out after the initial bid submission. He said the roofers could try to get a permission to shut down a lane of city traffic on Temple Street to do the job, but getting the permit from the city was up to them. He wasn’t making any promises on either question.

“I’m going not going to tell you how to do it — that’s your job,” Benassi told the roofers.

Daniel Moriarty, of Summit Works LLC, reckoned the job might be a “pain in the ass” due to inaccessibility, but he said he’d be up for the challenge.

Moriarty is an old hand at that site. As a younger man in 1984, before he went into business for himself, he worked on the very same roof.

The view was different then: The stretch of College Street was ghostly from vacancy and disrepair. The Temple Street Plaza (pictured) didn’t exist. The whole block was closed for construction as the Shubert, which had been shuttered for nearly a decade, underwent renovations. Workers knocked down the old Adams Hotel that faced College Street and turned it into a new theater lobby.

Times are changing now, warned his competitor in the bidding war, Brunelle: The price of asphalt has doubled over the past month.

Projections are that the price will climb even higher, Brunelle said, “That’s going to blow this project though the roof.”