GOING UP?

New Elevator Speeds Cole Library Visits

Lobby to 11th Floor at 500 feet per minute

JSU's Miller Parnell, in green jacket, takes a test ride. Photo shot from
reflection in car's glass ceiling. More photos below story. (Steve
Latham Photos)

By Sherry Kughn
JSU News Bureau

March 18, 2004 -- The first step toward improving the elevators at Jacksonville State University's Houston Cole Library is complete. One elevator has a new cab, new controls, a new motor, and the shaft has been renovated. A service elevator and two more public elevators remain.

The work replacing the old elevators is being done by ThyssenKrupp, whose contract calls for electro-mechanical controls to be replaced by solid state microprocessor controls.

"We're replacing 30-year-old elevator technology with the new," said the library's director, Bill Hubbard. "The best feature of this new elevator is that it will allow library users to move from floor to floor much faster than the old ones."

It's not because the speed of the elevators is faster, though. The old and new elevators move in the shaft at the same speed -- 300 to 500 feet per minute. But Hubbard said that because the new controls are more efficient, the system will move the cab between floors more directly, and it will allow the maintenance department more control. For example, the former system "parked" the cab of the library on the seventh and tenth floors. The new system, once completed, allows control over where the cabs will park. Say, if a large crowd is expected for a certain event, one elevator could be parked at the lobby level and another at the floor of the event.

Another new feature is an emergency power supply backup. The elevators will continue operating even if power goes out. There are other safety and efficiency controls that will take place once the project is completed.

The improvement to the elevator system is the library's first since it was built in 1972. There have been minor improvements made, however.

The entire library is under contract for renovation, which will include new carpeting, fresh paint, and other improvements. The work is being done by Hudak and Dawson, who subcontracted the elevators to ThyseenKrupp. The elevator project should be completed by the start of the new academic year.

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