2008 Woodie Awards
Eight elevators not up to par
Andy Blais
Issue date: 2/14/08 Section: Campus
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According to university officials, there are eight URI elevators that are functional and useable, but do not meet current Rhode Island elevator and fire codes.
Problems with meeting elevator and fire safety standards occurred after the state stopped allowing older elevators to operate without meeting code under a process known as "grandfathering." But after the the 2003 Station Night Club fire that killed 100 people, Rhode Island cracked down on fire code laws and stopped grandfathering.
The URI elevators that do not meet the standards are in older buildings, including two buildings on the Bay Campus, Tyler Hall, the University Library, the Fine Arts Center, East Hall, Potter Building and Kirk Center for Engineering Studies.
URI Assistant Vice President for Business Services J. Vernon Wyman said there are three groups the elevators that needed repair fell into. The first were just minor repairs that fell under maintenance and under the purview of Otis Elevator Co., which last year bought out Delta Elevator Co. and its contract at URI.
"When they took over the contract they wanted to do a 100 percent list of elevators on their own … It took several months to get that completed," said Jerry Sidio, the director of university facilities services.
The second group consisted of 14 elevators that needed some repair and cost the university $127,000. Because of this, the university and state gave Otis Elevator a direct award to do the repair work. The repairs have been made to these problems.
Wyman described an example of the problems that were fixed in the second group of elevators.
"They needed to have the same key so that firefighters could lock out the elevators," Wyman said, addressing a function elevators have during fires, which brings them to the first floor. Without the new repairs, there would have been no way for the firefighters to shut down the elevators from going upstairs during fires.
The third group of elevators will cost the university the most money to repair. With this group, the university decided to put the repairs out to bid.