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Fear of falling Ordinance updates code, targets pre-'72 hydraulic elevators 10/14/2009 10:00 PM By MICAH MAIDENBERG
Editor Older elevators that use hydraulic lifts must be improved according to a rewrite of the city’s Elevator Ordinance. Aldermen ratified the bill in a 47-1 vote at the October city council meeting. A 42-month lead-in time will allow condo associations and building owners to prepare for the new costs the ordinance will require. Affected are buildings using hydraulic lift elevators that were installed prior to 1972 but were never retrofitted. Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) was the sole dissenter to the bill. The South Side alderman called it too burdensome for residents hammered by the economic recession and by special assessments they’ve levied to come into compliance with other city regulations. Hairston even accused top Department of Buildings officials with spreading fear about the specter of plunging elevators, a notion denied by those officials. Representatives from various business organizations, such as the Building Owners and Managers Association, testified in favor of the changes at a city council buildings committee hearing. Hydraulic elevators are lifted up and down via a cylinder system that is buried into the ground as deep as the building is high. In general, most structures using a hydraulic elevator are five stories high. The ordinance allows building owners to conduct a pressure test for a three-year period to show their elevators are safe; the test is already required under city code. What’s new is that after three years, owners must either install a temporary solution — such as a braking system — or replace the entire cylinder, according to the new law. Temporary fixes range in cost from $10,000 to $18,000, according to city officials, while the cost of replacing an elevator’s cylinder runs from $30,000 to $40,000. Department of Buildings commissioner Rich Monocchio said pre-1972 hydraulic elevators have outlived their natural life span. “We’ve balanced the costs and the economic conditions we all find ourselves in and safety,” Monocchio said at the October meeting of the city council’s Committee on Buildings. Hairston told Monocchio her constituents could not assume new hits to their association budgets. “Look at who you’re impacting. These are actually the people paying taxes,” Hairston said. “Are we trying to drive people out of the city of Chicago? Do we not want them living here?” “To the contrary,” Monocchio said. “How are they supposed to pay for this?” she asked. Ald. Bernard Stone, chair of the committee, tried to put the new requirements into perspective. “I think of 10 people on a passenger elevator and I think of the costs of 10 funerals, I have a question of balancing costs,” he said. “The costs of 10 funerals is heavier than the costs of replacing one elevator.” It is not clear how many buildings will be hit by the new ordinance. Monocchio told aldermen at the buildings committee hearing there around 5,000 hydraulic elevators across the city. Hairston pointed out some of the elevators on a list given to aldermen were for freight uses and delivery lifts on loading docks. “I think it’s a little deceptive here to give the impression that passenger elevators are unsafe,” she said. Monocchio acknowledged the number of elevators affected was probably smaller, as the city did not know which elevators had already been upgraded. Other aldermen from wards heavy with multi-unit residential buildings, like Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), supported the ordinance. Richard Gregory, of Vertex Corporation, an elevator consultancy, said the main thrust of the new ordinance was to bring city code into compliance with 2007 standards as written by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Of the new code, he said, “That gives you A, improved safety, and B, lower costs for new buildings, or modernization of old buildings. Because manufacturers they make things to meet the latest code. That is greatly the largest point of this ordinance.” Contact: mmaidenberg@chicagojournal.com
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