The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Business

February 5, 2010

Board rejects firewall design

By Joe Pinchot

HERMITAGE — Hermitage Board of Appeals rejected a variance request from Sharon Regional Health System for the design of a firewall in an addition to the Cancer Care Center.

The hospital already has installed a new linear accelerator at the center at 2320 Highland Road, and wants to expand by about 4,000 square feet to provide more treatment, waiting room, conference and rest room space, according to a representative from VEBH Architects, Pittsburgh.

The addition would be built out from a section which has three four-feet deep overhangs, with the new construction occurring underneath the overhangs, VEBH said. Architects looked at this design to minimize cost, maximize space and limit the work in the existing area, VEBH said.

The problem with the design is that the overhangs would remain, creating a firewall that rises vertically until it reaches the overhangs, and then runs horizontally to the roof line. Under the Uniform Construction Code, firewalls may only be vertical.

VEBH argued that the existing material, the materials used in the construction of a new firewall section and the installation of a sprinkler system would be equivalent to a vertical firewall.

Building Inspection Underwriters, the company that handles most of the city’s commercial plan review and inspection duties under the UCC, balked at the plan for the firewall, and the city did not take a position on it at Wednesday’s hearing, said City Inspector Russell V. Penn Jr. The board denied the variance 5-0.

SRHS already has received a building permit for the shell of the addition.

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