MAINTAINABILITY OF OUTDOOR ESCALATORS (SAFETY AND ACCIDENT PREVENTION)

Abstract

With recent implementation of new building and facility designs, outdoor escalators have been a preferred choice amongst designers and building owners to provide vertical transportation for commuters to travel within a building compound. However, it is discovered that there are new safety hazards imposed unto the public with regard to outdoor escalator usage. Due to the unique conditions that outdoor escalators are operating under, current standards and guidelines are insufficient to provide regulations to ensure safe public use. Moreover, research shows that the maintenance works of outdoor escalators have increased challenges in terms of cost and the increasing frequency of breakdowns. It is found that one of the sources of safety hazards and maintenance difficulties lie in the problem of insufficient exchange of information between stakeholders such as the manufacturers and the designers. Based on experiments and a detailed case study, a proposed framework is develop to encourage a more efficient exchange of information between stakeholders to ensure that safety management process are included during the planning stages of an outdoor escalator project.