UCCS’ elevators have been undergoing maintenances since the start of the semester.
Most recently, on Nov. 9, Osborne Center’s elevator and the Hybl Center’s east elevator underwent maintenance.
Executive director of Facilities Services, Jeff Reed, said that there has likely been an increase in the number of elevator maintenances.
“I think this year’s been probably more frequent as far as the number of [elevator] issues we’re having,” Reed said.
According to Reed, Facilities Services need to do maitenance on the elevators for many reasons, the most common being general upkeep to ensure they meet safety standards. He also gave other examples, like people jumping in the elevators and causing them to break.
Reed said UCCS’ elevators have been vandalized more frequently since students returned to campus after the pandemic. He said someone tried to pry open Columbine Hall’s elevator door with some sort of tool, knocking the door off its tracks.
Facilities Services have also started a multi-year long project that involves maintenances. The project aims to bring elevators on campus “into the 21st century,” according to Reed.
Reed explained the Nov. 9 maintenance in Osborne occurred because the door was held open too long. Elevators will send an error code then shut down and need to be reset by a technician if the door does not close after a certain amount of time. The elevator will warn people with a tone if they hold the door open too long.
The Hybl east elevator underwent maintenance the same day. Reed said someone ran something into the elevator door, knocking it off its tracks.
Something similar occurred a few weeks ago at the Ent Center when some people were moving a piano and knocked the elevator door off its tracks. Both elevators are now operating again.
Reed said that the Hybl west elevator has experienced a consistent issue since the creation of Hybl due to electrical bleedover from the west elevator into the building’s fire alarm.
The bleedover occurs because the elevator’s power source was placed too close to the center’s fire alarm, causing the electricity from the elevator’s power source to sometimes bleed over into the fire alarm’s power source whenever the elevator is used.
While the bleedover doesn’t affect the functionality of the fire panel, Reed said it does cause the fire alarm’s panel to send an electronic error message whenever bleedover occurs.
“We’ve been troubleshooting this issue on that elevator from day one,” Reed said. Facilities Services recently installed a power filter in hopes of solving the issue.
UCCS has a contract with a third party elevator engineering company called Kone to repair and maintain the elevators. The contract states that Kone must respond within four hours, though Reed said they typically respond faster than that.
“There’s millions of different things that can happen,” Reed said, “but we work with our vendor, Kone, to try to get them back online as quick as possible.”
Facilities Services is also working on the Kraemer Family Library breezeway as of Nov. 15 after strong winds blew ceiling tiles out of place and caused some of the support for the tile grid to be ripped out of place.
Reed said the ceiling tiles and support grid being damaged by strong winds was uncommon. Usually, issues with the breezeway occur when delivery drivers ignore signs informing them about vehicle height restrictions.
When maintenances happen, emails detailing the occurence will be sent out to students. Students needing ADA accommodations during elevator shutdowns can reach out to Disability Services at (719) 255-3354 or [email protected].
Photo from usforacle.com.