“State” behind delays in elevator inspection certificates

A student enters Stone-Davis Hall, walks across the foyer and arrives at the residence hall's two mirroring elevators. She turns to the elevator on her left and pushes the "up" button. But the door on the elevator behind her opens. A few minutes later, another student exits the elevator on the left.  When it reaches the first floor, its door opens more slowly than the other's. The certificate of inspection in the elevator on the left has been up for six months.

Approximately nine elevators on campus need updated certificates of inspection, according to Manager of Maintenance Services Ed Byrne. All residence halls have updated certificates of inspection except for Stone-Davis. The certificate of inspection on one of Stone-Davis's elevators was issued Aug. 17, 2009 and expired a year later.

According to the College's director of operations Mike Dawley, the elevators with the expired certificates of inspection do not present danger to passengers. "There's really no safety issues," he said.

Dawley attributes the delay between the elevator certificate's expiration and the forthcoming inspection to the Massachusetts Department of Public Safety.  "We file for the state inspections in June and once we file, it's up to the state to do the scheduling with the elevator company," he said.  The state used to complete inspections by August but fell behind within the last year.

"We were on demand," said Lenny Chase, an elevator inspector for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. According to Chase, there are approximately 40,000 elevators in the state of Massachusetts.  Until recently, the state only had about 40 professional elevator inspectors due to budget restraints.  The Department has now hired an additional 15 inspectors.

"The gap is now closing very quickly," Chase said. "Public safety is first and foremost."  The Department of Public Safety requires elevators to pass both an inspection and a practical test at least once a year. Operating an elevator without a permit or certificate of approval is punishable by a fine of no more than $500.

If an elevator does not pass inspection, the inspector posts a temporary certificate indicating that the owner of the elevator has 90 days to bring the elevator up to code, according to the Department of Public Safety's website. If the elevator presents a safety hazard, the inspector will disable the elevator and post on its entrance a notice of its dangerous condition. Five of the College's residence halls (Tower Court West, Lake House, Cazenove, Shafer and McAfee) have temporary 90-day certificates of inspection.  Issues that were unrelated to safety, such as the functionality of the lights, prevented these elevators from passing inspection. "Usually it's minor things that don't affect the operation but need to be addressed," Dawley said.   

Despite the delays with official inspections, the College has a regular service contract to check the elevators in the interim. "We still do monthly maintenance on them," Dawley said.

In his 29 years at the College, Byrne has not seen a serious safety issue with an elevator on campus. Byrne tries to get all the elevators inspected in August, so that the inspections don't interrupt the school year. Both of Stone-Davis's elevators had been serviced between three and four weeks ago, according to Byrne.  

But residents still experience some issues in the elevator with the expired certificate of inspection.  "I feel more annoyed than unsafe in the elevators," Lucia Perez '14, a resident of Stone-Davis, wrote in an e-mail. "The one on the left is nearly always broken and it takes a long time to fix. They normally run fine. They might pause for a bit before moving, but it hasn't malfunctioned in a way to make me nervous. I take it about four times a day (always to go up), and I very rarely have problems with it." Perez had been aware of the elevator's expired certificate of inspection since the day it expired, which was during Orientation.

Although Stone-Davis's Residence Area Coordinator Erin Doherty "[doesn't] know much" about the elevator's inspections, she does know that "much of the time only one is fully functioning," she wrote in an e-mail.