Chico State will spend $1.1 million to replace the staff elevator in Meriam Library during winter intersession, and three more elevators may be repaired in the summer.

The interiors of the four elevators will be demolished and completely remodeled within their respective shafts, said Michael McNairn, contracts coordinator in the department of procurement and contract services.

Additionally, all of the equipment, such as motors and rope brakes, will be replaced, according to the request for proposal drawn up for contractors.

“The plan is to have the service elevator for staff remodeled over the winter break, and the three main elevators would be done the following summer,” McNairn said.

A similar project was completed in the summer to modernize the elevators in Butte Hall, at a cost of about $1.2 million.

The contract for the project was awarded to a company that does not typically work on campus elevators, said Joe Wills, Chico State’s director of public affairs and publications. Sacramento-based Otto Construction, the same company that built the new Arts and Humanities Building, will be handling the remodel.

These costs come in addition to Chico State’s $130,000 contract with ThyssenKrupp, the company that performs regular monthly maintenance on the university’s elevators, Wills said.

“If there are problems, ThyssenKrupp comes out sometimes for as much as weekly maintenance,” Wills said, “but they always do monthly maintenance regardless.”

Per the contract, ThyssenKrupp has to come repair and maintain elevators as soon as problem is reported, Wills said. This is different from the state required permitting process, which is an annual occurrence.

“We are currently in the process of having the state inspector come to the campus and inspect the elevators,” Wills said. “They place the cards in the elevators that people see that reflect when the inspection was. They inspect them, but are not in charge of the main inspections.”

Chico State’s facilities management division keeps a log of reports of problems in the elevators, Wills said.

“When the Butte Hall elevators were replaced, there were many reports as they worked out the problems with the new equipment,” Wills said. “The number of calls have since subsided.”

Aubrey Crosby contributed to this report.

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