Poma-Otis to Install People Movers in Alabama and Minnesota In Contracts Valued at $25 Million

FARMINGTON, Conn. (PROTEXT) - Otis Elevator Company's Poma- Otis Transportation Systems unit announced today it has signed agreements totaling $25 million to build and install people movers at Huntsville Hospital in Alabama and the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Poma-Otis is a joint venture of Pomagalski of France and Otis Elevator Company. "These awards extend Poma-Otis' leadership of the airport people-moving market, and open up exciting possibilities in the health care industry," said Michael Wilson, general manager of Poma-Otis Transportation Systems. "Our shuttles are proving their worth in a growing array of challenging customer environments." The $7 million Huntsville Hospital shuttle system will ultimately connect several hospital buildings stretched across a campus complex nearly one-quarter mile in length. The system will include four stations and will be capable of moving up to 900 people per hour in each direction. The system will be fully automated and will run around the clock. An express service will connect the Huntsville Hospital Main Building and the East Building, and will be capable of transporting patients in their hospital beds in a totally controlled environment. Outside temperatures in Huntsville can range from below 32 degrees to more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Groundbreaking on the Poma-Otis system is scheduled for February, 2000, and the system opens in May, 2001. The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport shuttle is the second system that Poma-Otis has been awarded at that site. The first, which opens next year, connects the main terminal to a new parking area now under construction. The $18 million new system will serve the extended Green Concourse area and will open in 2002. The new system will have three stops, and can move up to 1,700 people per hour in each direction operating at speeds up to 26 miles per hour. Because the system will operate outdoors, it will run on steel wheels to ensure reliable operation throughout Minnesota's winter weather. These awards extend a successful string of achievements for Poma-Otis, Wilson said. In the past two years, Poma-Otis has captured contracts for the new Northwest Airlines airport terminal in Detroit, and the Midfield Concourse at Zurich International Airport in Switzerland. Poma-Otis shuttles are already installed and providing safe, reliable service at the Getty Center museum in Los Angeles, at Narita International Airport near Tokyo, Japan, and at the Delta Airlines airport terminal in Cincinnati. Pomagalski, with headquarters in Grenoble, France, is the world's leading supplier of ski-area transportation equipment, with extensive experience also in APMs, funiculars and inclined elevators. Farmington-based Otis Elevator Company is the world's leading provider of elevators, escalators and people-moving systems. Otis is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX). ots Original Text Service: Otis Elevator Company Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Matthew Broder, Director, International Public Relations of Otis Elevator Company, 860-676-5402, or home, 203-281-7602, or matt.broder@otis.com Subscribers please note that material bearing the slug "PROTEXT" is not part of CTK's news service and is not to be published under the "CTK" slug. Protext is a commercial service providing distribution of press releases from clients, who are identified in the text of Protext reports and who bear full responsibility for their contents. PROTEXT