1. (a) The commission shall adopt standards for the installation, maintenance, alteration, operation, and inspection of equipment used by the public in:

   1. (1) buildings owned or operated by the state, a state-owned institution or agency, or a political subdivision of the state; and
   2. (2) buildings that contain equipment that is open to the general public, including a hotel, motel, apartment house, boardinghouse, church, office building, shopping center, or other commercial establishment.
2. (b) Standards adopted by the commission may not contain requirements in addition to the requirements in the ASME Code A17.1, ASME Code A17.3, ASME Code A18.1, or ASCE Code 21. The standards must allow alteration of existing equipment if the alteration does not diminish the safety of the equipment below the level required by this subchapter at the time of alteration.
3. (c) Standards adopted by the commission must require equipment to comply with the installation requirements of the ASME Code A17.1, ASME Code A18.1, or ASCE Code 21 that was in effect and applicable on the date of installation of the equipment.
4. (d) Standards adopted by the commission must require equipment to comply with the installation requirements of the ASME Code A17.3 that contains minimum safety standards for all equipment, regardless of the date of installation.
5. (e) The executive director shall grant a delay for compliance with the applicable ASME Code A17.1, ASME Code A17.3, or ASME Code A18.1 until a specified time if compliance is not readily achievable, as that phrase is defined in the Americans with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. Section 12101 et seq.), or regulations adopted under that Act. The accumulated total time of all delays may not exceed three years, except as provided by Subsection (f) or as allowed in the discretion of the executive director.
6. (f) The executive director shall grant a delay until September 1, 2010, for compliance with the requirements for door restrictors or firefighter's service in the ASME Code A17.3 if those requirements were not included in the ASME Code A17.1 that was in effect on the date of installation and the equipment was not subsequently installed.

7. (g) The executive director may grant a waiver of compliance from an applicable code requirement if the executive director finds that:

   1. (1) the building in which the equipment is located is a qualified historic building or facility or the noncompliance is due to structural components of the building;
   2. (2) noncompliance will not constitute a significant threat to passenger safety; and
   3. (3) noncompliance, with adequate alternative safeguards, will not constitute a significant threat to worker safety.

8. (h) The executive director shall grant a waiver of compliance if the noncompliance resulted from compliance with a municipal equipment construction code at the time of the original installation and the noncompliance does not pose imminent and significant danger. The executive director may grant a waiver of compliance with the firefighter's service provisions of the ASME Code A17.1 or the ASME Code A17.3 in an elevator that exclusively serves a vehicle parking garage in a building that:

   1. (1) is used only for parking;
   2. (2) is constructed of noncombustible materials; and
   3. (3) is not greater than 75 feet in height.
9. (i) This subchapter does not apply to equipment in an industrial facility, or in a grain silo, radio antenna, bridge tower, underground facility, or dam, to which access is limited primarily to employees of or working in that facility or structure.
10. (j) One application for a waiver or delay may contain all requests related to a unit of equipment. A delay may not be granted indefinitely but must be granted for a specified time not to exceed three years.
11. (k) For purposes of this section, the date of installation or alteration of equipment is the date that the owner of the real property entered into a contract for the installation or alteration of the equipment. If that date cannot be established, the date of installation or alteration is the date of issuance of the municipal building permit under which the equipment was installed or altered or, if a municipal building permit was not issued, the date that electrical consumption began for the construction of the building in which the equipment was installed.
12. (l) Standards adopted by the commission may include and be guided by revised versions of ASME Code A17.1, ASME Code A18.1, and ASCE Code 21, as appropriate.
13. (m) The executive director may on application of a person and in accordance with procedures adopted by the commission, grant a variance to allow the installation of new technology if the new component, system, subsystem, function, or device is equivalent or superior to the standards adopted by the commission.

Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 65, Sec. 3, eff. Sept. 1, 1993.

Amended by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 865, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1995;

Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 974, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1995;

Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 816, Sec. 9.001, eff. Sept. 1, 2003;

Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 935, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2003;

Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 1268, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2003.

Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 574 (S.B. 1729), Sec. 2, eff. June 16, 2007.