Posted: Jan 17 2016 at 4:31pm | Views: 1416
The New York City Building Department and two outside elevator companies are constantly examining Co-op City's elevators and they have reached the same conclusion - riding the elevators remain safe.
"The elevators here are absolutely safe," said William Warr of VDA Elevator, Riverbay's outside independent consultant and industry expert. "If there was any question about the safety of the elevators, we would certainly be the first one to call that out and shut them down. They've also been assessed by our elevator maintenance company and the New York City Buildings Department. All of us came up with the same conclusion. They are absolutely safe." Warr said in a message to shareholders at the Open Board Meeting held on January 13, 2016 at the Bartow Center.
Warr's firm has surveyed the elevators throughout Coop City, listened to concerns of shareholders, investigated specific incidents and has determined that safety has not been compromised.
On occasion when an elevator does stop operating temporarily, Warr reminds shareholders to press the emergency button and respond to the dispatcher who answers their call.
Warr urged riders to remain calm and activate the safety button which will send help right away. "Never ask someone to get you out or try to get out yourself; That's how people get hurt." he said.
VDA Elevator is currently drafting a proposal to look through all the elevators and identify any issues, determine which ones are priorities, and then design a new specification. That process will take several months as part of the multi-year solution to the overall issue.
Problems with the elevators surfaced in recent months with the machinery that was replaced during the modernization of the community's elevators more than ten years ago by the previous elevator contractor, MAINCO, whose parent company is Thyssen Krupp Elevators (TKE).
Early in 2014, Riverbay took legal action against TKE in Bronx Supreme Court regarding TKE's failure to honor 25 year warranties on the machine they installed, which they claimed was equal to what Riverbay had in its bid specifications. However, when some of the TKE installed machines began to vibrate and fail, TKE refused to honor the warranty.
A court settlement resulted in TKE having to replace the machines as needed with a standard one year warranty on the replaced machinery. As TKE proceeded to replace the failing machines, those replaced machines failed inspection by the New York City Buildings Department inspectors, citing excessive vibration in the cars.
Warr explained that a report completed for Riverbay determined the range of duty elevators must handle and the very heavy traffic that occurs every day.
"The problem you are having is that the hoisting equipment you are using with the Northern 151 machined is not sufficient to handle your capacity," he said.
"These machines have to be replaced to meet the needs of the Coop City complex," Warr concluded, pointing out that the gears are prematurely wearing because they have too much heat and were never meant to handle the rise of these buildings, causing several types of problems.
Currently, one elevator is out in Building 30A since November 2, 2015 due to excessive vibration and is waiting for TKE to build replacement machines. Riverbay was informed last week that the machines have arrived and TKE must now wait for the Department of Buildings permits for installation. Once the permits are received, it will take two to three weeks to install followed by DOB inspections needed for approval to return the car to service.
Building 2A is in need of a machine though the car continues to operate and will be done after Building 30A is completed, according to Riverbay Director of Elevator Projects, Joe Boiko.
By Jim Roberts
Coop City Times is
now online
