New Construction – Hydraulic Elevators – Chicago Public Schools

 

In 2022 we had the opportunity to complete a few new construction projects.  We do a handful of new construction projects a year, typically for people who do not want to work with proprietary elevator systems or have a bad taste in their mouth from other experiences from OEMs.  As an independent elevator company in a major market our OEMs[Otis, Schindler, TK, Kone] have very competitive pricing on new construction elevators.  The rub on the good price is different customer support, construction support, domain knowledge and the biggest one is what you are going to pay when the elevator is completed and you have to hire an elevator maintenance provider for ongoing maintenance and annual testing.

Some of our new construction projects this year were with the Chicago Public Schools [CPS], the largest school system in the state of Illinois and one of the largest school systems in the nation.

Unique needs – The Chicago Public School system is working on making some of their very old buildings more accessible. The Chicago Public Schools has a great elevator consultant, Joe Donnelly, who crafted a CPS standard elevator, so the same elevator is installed at all CPS locations.  This makes it very easy for the owner[CPS], GCs and installers because every elevator more or less is the same as the last one. This standard does not allow for borehole jacks for environmental concerns and requires non-proprietary equipment so any elevator company can maintain the elevators after they are turned over. 

Elevator Equipment used – At this specific CPS site we used a Minnesota Elevator package with the following equipment

            Elevator controller - Motion Control Engineering

            Cylinders – ITI Hyraulik

            Door equipment – GAL

            CAB/Sling/Platform – MEI

            Power unit – MEI w/Maxton valve

            Fixtures - Innovation Industries

Before the start of the project – Long before we step foot onsite for installation, there is a lot of work with the elevator company office and the GC.  Many visits to the building during construction to make sure the pit is the right size, inserts are in the walls in the right places, sump pit is in the right spot, machine room is the right size. In this specific event we had a great GC to work with from day one to completion; George Sollitt – Wood Dale, IL.

[Walking the steel with the GC] 

[New elevator pit needs to be verified] 

When the building is up – When the building is up, we needed to work with the GC on hoistway measurements and where are attachments are.

[Hoistway is built per our specs] 

[Inserts are in per our specs] 

[Pit is in with the sump per our specs] 

Mobilization – When we mobilize on a construction it is sometimes challenging to work among the other trades because the buildings have a lot going on.  In this event they are building classrooms, gymnasiums, parking lots, roofs, walls, installing lockers, lighting, fire system, building power, stages, stair wells, floor finishes, bathrooms, etc.  A lot of people, a lot of coordination.  We have to work with the GC and other trades to make sure we get everything we need to complete a portion of the project.

Specific challenges – During 2022 we had an issue getting our local utility to get us power and if it wasn’t getting power, it was getting switch gears, transformers and other larger power equipment.  It is hard to build a building if you do not have any power to power it.

[Main landing/main egress after building is completed] 

[Car top with telescoping pistons & GAL door equipment] 

[Elevator pit when everything is completed] 

Thank you – I would like to thank the Colley Team for doing an incredible job from our truck drivers who navigated deliveries through the gnarly load in and load out areas to our field team who did a great installation.  This project had 12 different Colley Elevator Company people work on it from contract signing, permitting, engineering, deliveries, field assistance, installation, certified payroll, close out docs, close out meetings and final billing.  We had an exceptional GC who was great to work with onsite, thank you George Sollit.  We had a great equipment partner at MEI, thank you MEI.

Take away – The Chicago Public Schools in my opinion are doing a great job of insulating themselves from having elevator equipment that may cause headaches and be difficult to economically maintain in the future.  The main item is having nonproprietary equipment that allows any elevator contractor to be able to have access to technical support and replacement parts.  When pricing out new elevator systems you need to look at the 20 year cost for the equipment, not just the installation cost.

If you have any questions or would like additional information feel free to contact me at CraigZ@colleyelevator.com or 630-766-7230 ext. 107.

Also check us out on Instagram @Colleyelevator see what we have been up to.