Castellana 110 Elevator Modernization

This 60-m-tall office building in Madrid has its elevators replaced in this challenging project.

by Julián Fernández Martínez, Jesús Real Sánchez and Carlos Parro

Castellana 110 is a 60-m-tall office building in front of the financial area of Azca in Madrid. Previously, the building had four elevators, which became problematic and unable to handle the building’s traffic demands. ThyssenKrupp Elevator was contracted to modernize the elevators in March 2011. The company also carried out civil works required for the development of the project.

The elevator project began in July 2011. The replacement of elevators A and D began when the project was in the final planning phase. ThyssenKrupp Elevator discovered the second elevator shaft had a rise of more than 7 cm and 17 stops, which meant the doors could not be excessively displaced. This required special approximation parts, the shaft had to be adjusted, and new car openings had to be made for both elevators. On December 18, almost one month before the end of the scheduled timeframe, the client was able to test the refinished elevators. The installation was open to the public the following day.

The elevators feature electric-motor technology and an upper machine room. All units are passenger elevators, and elevator C is designated for hanging loads with protection. It includes a security keypad in the passageway. The power converter features a speed governor through a vector control frequency converter in closed loop and regenerative braking. In addition, a destination-dispatch system was installed. It includes two control panels per floor, both of which feature card swipes. One is for using the freight elevator, and the other is for activating accessibility functions.