To see a video on the University’s elevators, click here.
While Tiger fans packed campus Saturday for the matchup against Mississippi State, a few unlucky fans didn’t spend the day drinking beer and participating in pregame rituals — they were trapped in on-campus elevators.Elevators in Pleasant, Chopin and East Laville halls and the Veterinary Medicine Building failed, but Facility Service and KONE, Inc., employees were able to get the students out in 20 to 25 minutes.With about 160 elevators on campus, Paul Favaloro, director of Facility Services, said the chances of every elevator on campus being up to code is highly unlikely. But Favaloro maintains the elevators are still safe to use.Favaloro said it would cost millions of dollars to bring each elevator on campus up to the modern standards of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, an organization known for setting codes and standards for mechanical devices.The campus contains about 25 percent of the state-owned elevators, and the state runs bi-annual inspections of each elevator — usually around January and July.”When [the state does] inspections, there’s the maintenance deficiency and the recommended code violations,” Favaloro said. “The maintenance deficiency is for our contractor to address.”Favaloro said a majority of code violations of elevators are based on today’s code.”It wasn’t the code at the time the elevators were installed,” Favaloro said. “If we were to sit down and take all 160 elevators and do code upgrades, it would be in the millions [of dollars].”Favaloro said most elevators on campus are more than 15 years old.The oldest is inside the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex, which was built around the 1920s.Favaloro said it will be almost impossible to bring Howe-Russell’s elevator up to modern standards unless a completely new car is built.Michelle Daigle, communication studies senior, said she was trapped inside the elevator of Joan Miller Hall during her freshman year.”It was only for a couple of seconds,” Daigle said. “But I’m kind of scared it will happen again.”Sarah Neelis, business marketing sophomore, said she was stuck in an elevator, but not one on campus.”I got stuck for 30 minutes and had to pry the door open,” Neelis said. “But I’m not really worried about it happening again.”The Office of Facility Services doesn’t have the manpower to maintain each elevator on campus, Favaloro said. Instead, the University contracts KONE, Inc., to facilitate all maintenance issues to elevators.The contract, which costs the University around $320,000 annually, provides the campus with KONE employees to make scheduled inspections of the 160 elevators.Brad Martin, KONE elevator maintenance technician, said at least two KONE workers are on campus everyday doing 40-hour work weeks.”Ninety-five percent of the elevators on campus are maintained by KONE employees with the exceptions of Lod Cook Hotel, the Co-Op Extension Building and others,” Martin said. “That’s because most of those elevators are still under warranty and can be replaced by the company who installed them. Once the warranty ends, KONE can begin maintaining them.”Sam Territo, assistant director of Facility Services, said the only way for an elevator to fully comply with modern standards will be a complete renovation of a building.”When we do a major renovation, or a capital improvement to the existing facility, the elevators are upgraded and brought up to current code, just as the facility is brought up to current [building] codes,” Territo said.Blake Hall, a residential building, has fully up-to-date elevators because of its recent renovations.The Student Union and the Music and Dramatic Arts Building will also get completely new elevators once the building’s renovations are complete, Territo said.”We recognize the recommendations and code violations to which the state writes it, but some of the codes were written decades after the elevator was built,” Favaloro said.Daigle said the general maintenance on campus needs to be better.”A lot of the buildings on campus are older so a little updating is needed,” Daigle said. Neelis said the elevators in Middleton Library are the only ones she uses on campus.”It needs to be updated,” Neelis said. “The buttons on the elevator only work half the time.”Even though completely upgrading every elevator on campus is an expensive task, Favaloro said he is focusing on specific issues and fixing problems such as installing smoke detectors and air ventilation.”When the state inspector comes, I ask him, ‘What’s the most important issue?'” he said.Favaloro said when Facility Services knows what to focus on, he works to get private funding to pay for the upgrades.Favaloro said the University just finished equipping all capable elevators with two-way communication, which include the “Call” button inside most elevator cars.These new installations were able to save several people from the failed elevators this past gameday.Favaloro said the people trapped used the “Call” button which reached the LSU Police Department, and Facility Services and KONE were able to get them out within 20 to 25 minutes.Facility Services and KONE are working to repair 11 single-bottom jacks on hydraulic elevators, a system in the ground which protects the elevator from corrosion and electrolysis.Favaloro said the biggest issue with faulty single-bottom jacks is leaking oil, which can cause environmental issues.The Chemical Engineering Building just had its single-bottom jacks replaced, and the Electrical Engineering Building is currently being fixed.He said it will cost about $500,000 to address and replace all of the single-bottom jacks.Favaloro said once those issues are addressed, he will try to gain funding to install “electric eyes” on all capable elevators — a task which will cost about $56,000.”Electric eyes” are light beams which open the elevator doors when something disrupts it.Territo said this project can only be installed in elevators capable of it, which doesn’t include the Howe-Russell elevator.Martin said elevators on campus are usually all running and most of the issues are caused by its users.”Elevators are built to last a lifetime,” Martin said. “It’s the code that dictates everything else.”Territo said even if all the elevators on campus are upgraded to modern ASME standards, a few years later it will need to be upgraded again.—-Contact J.J. Alcantara at [email protected]