On April 1, 2022, the "Safety and Technical Supervision of Elevators and Vertical Raising Platforms" came into force. This means that the requirements for elevators installed before September 1, 2000, were made much higher. According to the Register of Dangerous Installations, there are approximately 3,800 such elevators in Latvia. Basically, they are a quarter of a century old or older, their service life has come to an end, and it is no longer profitable to repair them.
"It is very expensive and they have reached the end of their useful life. They are at the end of their life, so they have to be replaced with new ones, there are no other options," said Ruslans Dimitrijevs, an engineer in the technical department of the Daugavpils Housing and Communal Management Company DDzKSU. According to him, the elevators to be replaced in the city are made in Russia and Belarus, and cannot be repaired or renovated due to sanctions.
"Those elevators were from Mogilev in Belarus, of course, the sanctions affect us, affect the supply of spare parts. Of course, even before the sanctions we managed to buy parts from our warehouses and we can carry out repairs."
"That is why it is our mission to replace all the elevators, to make them all new, to make them meet all the standards and to make them safe."
Daugavpils residential buildings have a total of 67 elevators under the supervision of the housing and communal management company DDzKSU Ltd.
The replacement of elevators manufactured in the 1970s and 1980s started in 2006. In the meantime, 59 elevators have been replaced in the city.
The newest elevators being installed in Daugavpils, such as in the 9-storey building in the Jaunā Forštate neighbourhood, at 17 Tartu Street, come from Greece, Dimitrijevs said.
The replacement of elevators in Daugavpils is financed from a savings fund created by apartment owners. The company that carries out the procurement is receptive, said Valērijs Kalāns, former chief energy engineer of DDzKSU and now an expert in the field of elevators.
"In the previous tender, which was concluded in 2023, the price for an elevator was just under €37,000 excluding VAT. Its repayment is divided proportionally between the shares, each owner for five years. First of all, no one overpays, because there is no interest on top; for the average apartment of 65 square meters it costs around €7 per month," said Kalāns.
Currently, Daugavpils has already tendered for the replacement of another 6 elevators, with the procedures for the remaining two planned to start next year.
Meanwhile, there are 1,300 old elevators in buildings managed by Riga House Manager, requiring €80-100 million to replace them, and not much action going on.
