Elevator issues plague area parks

By: 
Jason Ferguson
Nearly seven months to the day that they first went down, the elevators at Wind Cave National Park still aren’t operational.
Consultants were brought in last week to chart a path to fix the elevators. Those consultants will write up a scope of work and a contractor will be sought to repair the ailing elevators.
“We will know more in the coming months,” said Wind Cave chief of interpretation Tom Farrell about what it will take to get the elevators operational again.
When the elevators were initially shut down, two issues were plaguing them. First, the controller that lets the elevator’s computer system know where in the shaft the cab is at any given time was malfunctioning, as were rope grippers, which prevent the elevator from going too fast.
“We were having a lot of issues with them,” Farrell said. “The controller would lose where the cab was in the shaft, and the brakes would lock up.”
The decision was therefore made to shut the elevators down. The company that at that time had the park’s elevator service contract, Tyssenkrupp, attempted repairs last summer and fall. As the repairs kept getting delayed, the National Park Service terminated its contract with Tyssenkrupp because of its failure to resolve the conditions endangering performance and because the company was less than satisfactory in terms of downtime and frequency of service calls.
“They just hadn’t made much progress,” Farrell said.
While the park waits on the repairs, it loses money, as it cannot offer tours, the park’s main source of income. From July through November 2018 the park made $655,296 from tours, and Farrell said the park probably missed out on at least that much in revenue in 2019 during the same time frame because it was unable to conduct tours. Of that figure, 80 percent goes toward park projects.
The loss of revenue is far-reaching, as Farrell said it will impact the park for several years. The park will be unable to hire as many maintenance workers or tour guides as it has in the past, and upgrades at the recently-acquired Sanson Ranch portion of the park have also been stalled.
Naturally, grumbling was to be expected from visitors who arrived at the park only to find they couldn’t take a cave tour, but as time drags on, most people who arrive at the park are aware that tours aren’t available. Visitation has fallen off dramatically, however.
“That’s too bad because we still have 20,000 acres of surface features, mixed grass prairie and hiking trails,” Farrell said. “That’s what we stressed last summer. We are two parks in one and right now we are just one.”
The park toyed with the idea of conducting tours through an alternate walk-in entrance, but decided against that because of safety concerns if there were a medical emergency. That entrance includes 155 stairs that include spirals.
“From an emergency medical point of view, we don’t see how we can make it work,” he said.
Part of the fee for each cave tour ticket sold goes toward the park’s elevator fund, which will help pay for repairs — whenever they are done. Farrell hopes the elevators will be running by the time tourist season ramps up this spring. By mid-March, he said, the park should have a good idea if the elevators can be fixed or a “major overhaul” will need to be undertaken.
From Aug. 3 to Sept. 30, the elevators for the cave tours at both Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Park were down, as during that time, the elevators at Jewel Cave went down due to what cave superintendent Michelle Wheatley said were “multiple problems.”
“The elevators initially went down due to problems with the interlocks. Once the interlocks were fixed, it was determined the travel cables needed to be replaced,” she said.
Troubleshooting multiple problems, ordering parts, making repairs, discovering the additional problems and going through the same process “over and over again” resulted in the elevators being down for almost two months and a $238,440 loss at Jewel Cave as its Scenic Tours and Discovery Talks were unavailable without the elevators.
“The operational status of the cave elevators is vital to Jewel Cave National Monument and our ability to serve the public,” Wheatley said. “This was incredibly disappointing for all of us.”
 The effects were the same as at Wind Cave: There were plenty of disappointed people who showed up to take tours, and maintenance and staffing abilities took a hit.
“We ended up shortening some employees’ season because we weren’t able to provide those tours,” Wheatley said. “It pushes back other important projects because we didn’t have that direct revenue.”
Unlike Wind Cave, however, Jewel Cave was able to offer a tour via another entrance and, because of that, continued to conduct Historic Lantern Tours. That tour was extended past its normal Sept. 1 closure to the end of October. The park also offered additional porch talks and other programs while encouraging visitors to watch its new film in the park’s new theatre area.
Ranger-guided tours were halted again last October, but this time it was to make necessary improvements along the cave’s Scenic Tour route.
“The cave construction project recently entered phase two and multiple crews are working inside the cave through mid-May,” Wheatley said. “Phase two of the construction project will continue to address safety concerns and improvements along the Scenic Tour route.”
In order to ensure visitor and construction worker safety, the NPS opted to shut the cave down in and around the construction site. Work includes the removal of existing sidewalks, stair treads, guardrails and handrails, concrete sidewalks, lighting upgrades and other improvements throughout the route.
The project was done during the off-season to reduce visitor impacts. The visitor center, park store and surface trails remain open, just as they do at Wind Cave.

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