Students should no longer be at risk of getting trapped in the MHT building’s lift after repair work to replace a faulty component.
Since September 14th the lift has “failed” five times, all occurring between October 5th and November 2nd. Three of those involved the equipment’s safety gear being engaged.
The university stresses that because of the multiple safety systems included in the lift’s design passengers were not at risk, and the lift’s overall safety was not compromised.
After the third fault, on October 30th, the university ordered a full inspection of the safety gear. Maintenance staff had been keeping an eye on it for the previous five days, when it had failed and the safety gear was engaged.
A faulty relay was found to be the culprit at the start of November, and was replaced in the middle of the month. Since then things have been working smoothly.
The university say they are working with contractor Thyssen-Krupp to improve the reliability of the lift, which is the only way to reach the building’s upper floors for people who can’t use the stairs.
The Estates department at the institution is also keeping a close eye on the situation, and monitoring it on a daily basis.
Over the summer it was refurbished by the same contractor. The work took just under two weeks to complete, but between September 1st and 14th it was out of order for four days.
If anyone cares, there are Twitter accounts for the three main lifts in MHT/MAB which update when a lift breaks down (and they banter between themselves):
@mab_jane (MAB lift with the English accent)
@mab_sheila (MAB lift with the Australian accent)
@mht_marie (MHT lift)