UW Elevator Vandalism Causes Issues

Throughout January, the elevators connecting Odegaard Undergraduate Library to the underground parking garage at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle were repeatedly vandalized, causing them to close for extended periods, The Daily reports. In the event of an emergency, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires elevators to have operational communication systems, most commonly in-unit phones. In Odegaard, the ADA emergency phones were repeatedly urinated on, according to Tyler Quandt, manager of UW’s elevator shop. UW’s elevator repair team has been working to replace the ADA phones as soon as an act of vandalism occurs, but their stock is almost out. The repair team ordered eight new phones in late January with estimated delivery time of up to 10 weeks. There is currently one elevator car running. UW is unique for having its own team of elevator technicians: the team of seven technicians has a response time of 15 min, so elevators can be back up in hours rather than days. Parking garages are harder to secure than the other campus elevators. The maintenance team’s current strategy is to prevent both elevators connecting Red Square’s parking garage to Odegaard from being out of service at the same time