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01
Apr

2022

Weekly Roundup: Replacement Lifts

Cypress Mountain Resort by Marc van der Chijs (CC BY-ND 2.0)

The Cypress Mountain Resort in Canada is building a new chair lift to its peak. The SkyQuad lift will replace the existing Sky Chair, a double chair from 1968. The new Doppelmayr system not only has more capacity, but also includes a loading carpet at the lower terminal. Construction will begin April 2022 and will be completed by October 2022.
Locals are wanting Seattle’s transit agency to consider a gondola instead of the light rail expansion. Consultants believe the gondola could cost $2 billion less and have a quicker implantation time than the current Sound Transit light rail project. The gondola is estimated to be up and running by 2026 compared to 2032 for the light rail project due to continued delays. The local group’s sense of urgency is fueled by intense traffic due to the West Seattle Bridge project delays.
The 1994 Thunder lift at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort will be replaced with a new detachable quad. The lift will run double the speed of the original lift making the total travel time 3.6 minutes. The system is manufactured by Leitner-Poma.

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04
Mar

2022

Weekly Roundup: New Horizons

The new tram cabins announced for Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah will feature a rooftop balcony.
Rendering credit: Snowbird Press Release

Construction for the proposed 4.5 kilometer cable car in Paris is anticipated to begin this year. The $149 million USD system will be the longest cable car in France moving 11,000 people daily. Renderings of the alignment and station have been released and highlight the accessibility to cabins. Designs of the station and tower are intended to blend into its surroundings. See a related Weekly Roundup here.

Alterra has announced plans to invest $344 million at Palisades Tahoe. The plan will include a base-to-base gondola to provide access between the two resorts. The system is expected to be completed by next winter. The gondola will cost $65 million. Other planned resort improvements include adding new chairlifts, installing the longest mountain coaster in North America, expanding and lengthening tube runs, and installing a summer tubing surface.

Snowbird is celebrating its 50^th anniversary by giving the tram an exciting upgrade. The new tram cabins will feature floor-to-ceiling window panels and a rooftop balcony. After two years in the works, the cabins have been completed in Switzerland and will be shipped to Snowbird soon. The cabins are expected to be installed and operating by late June.

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17
Dec

2021

Weekly Roundup: Proposals Big and Small

The Hindu religious shrine Naina Devi is proposed to be one destination on a cable car system. The project received no bids during it’s request for proposal period. The tender is now being reworked.
Photo credit: Gurlal Maan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The governments of Punjab and Himachal received no bids for the cable car projects aimed to link the Sikh historic town to the Naina Devi shrine. The tender is being reworked for another request for proposal (RFP). The project would replace the 24.7 km roadway route with a 3.5 km cable car with three stations and a capacity to carry 800 people per hour per direction (pphpd). The project has been in the works for over a decade.

In this historic look, learn more about the history of the self-proclaimed “world’s first self-propelled aerial cable cars”, the Big Rock Aerial Tramway in Cluster, South Dakota. In the 1950’s tourism began to grow in the west and ropeway technology had advanced to the point of aerial tramways. In the early 1960’s the tramway opened, but the design was fatally flawed due to the system being under-powered, among other mechanical issues. The system closed after just a few years.

Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont has opened two lifts this month. The new lifts are part of a Vail Resorts capital improvement plan to get guests to the mountain top faster and easier. The Quantum Six replaced a four-person lift with a six-person lift. The four-person lift was relocated and renamed the Evergreen Summit Express, replacing a three-person fixed grip chair lift.

The Sri Lanka government has signed an agreement with a Swedish Company to construct Sri Lanka’s first cable car. The system will connect Nanu Oya to Nuwara Eliya, traveling 4km and costing approximately $55 million (USD). Construction of the project will be done in two phases and is expected to be completed in 18 months.

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10
Dec

2021

Weekly Roundup: Out with the Old, In with the New

Cape Smokey Provincial Park, Canada, seen here in the summer months, is the site of the only gondola in Atlantic Canada.
Photo credit: LPeezy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Weather Network’s Nathan Coleman documented his trip to the only gondola in Atlantic Canada, Cape Smokey. Cape Smokey has been a ski destination since the 1970’s, but new owners were looking to create a year round destination. There are future development plans to build a tree walk. The system can operate with up to 80 km/hour, but the speed is reduced once wind speeds hit 60 km/hour.

Leitner has released a prototype of the Connx, a cable car that turns into a minibus. The Connx is intended to be highly flexible and high tech, with the cabin able to convert between being an aerial cable car and a self-driving vehicle. The objective of this new technology is to have an alternative solution for topographical or structural obstacles. Check out Leinter’s latest press release here.

The Maokong Gondola haul-rope replacement has been completed and is expected to reopen on December 12. The system closed three months ago to replace the rope and conduct acceptance tests. Splicing the haul rope required a team of 20 to 30 people and a total of 8.5 km of rope. The topographical constraints made mobilizing heavy machinery and splicing more difficult.

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03
Dec

2021

Weekly Roundup: Tourism Boosts

Mt. Lovcen National Park in Montenegro will be getting a gondola system that connects it to the coastal town of Kotor.
Photo credit: Milica Buha, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The National Parks Authority is working on a cable car on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa to boost tourism. The system would allow visitors who cannot climb to reach Africa’s highest mountain. The project has been approved by the appropriate government entities and is expected to begin soon.

The construction of the Bandipur cable car in India is 95% complete. The project was projected to be completed two months ago but was delayed due to Covid. It is now expected to take another year to finish. The project also includes a 15-story queen tower and hotel with a wax museum, planetarium, artificial haunted house, conference hall, and pool.

Montenegro’s government has selected a team to construct a gondola connecting the coastal town of Kotor to the Lovcen national park. The project was awarded to the consortium of Leitner and Novi Volvox. The financial offer of the consortium implies a compensation of 15% of the net value of the profit for the gondola and associated facilities, which include restaurant, parking lot and souvenir shop, for a 30 year period. Annual revenue is estimated to be between 3.9 million euro and 9 million euro.

Whitefish Mountain Resort in Montana plans to open a newly relocated chair lift on December 11. The resort spent the off-season and $2 million reconfiguring Chair 8. The purpose of relocating the chair was to provide better access to the Hellroaring Basin and increase the area for intermediate skiers and riders.

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19
Nov

2021

Weekly Roundup: Solving a Kansas/Missouri Problem

Kansas City, split into two states by the pictured river, has a plan to connect the two sides with a cable car.

The proposed development for the Mount Wellington Cable Car has been scaled down in an effort to get approval from Hobart City Council. The original design for the facilities on Kunanyi/Mt Wellington were reduced by over a third by trimming floor space and removing the restaurant and sanctum all together. Cabin capacity of the aerial tram was also reduced from 80 passengers to 40 passengers. See a related Weekly Roundup here.

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has issued an engineering, procurement, and construction tender for a cable car and luxury hotels. They will be key attractions for the Dubai Mountain Peak project in the Hatta Region. The cable car is designed to be 5.4 km, moving tourists to Um Al Nesoor, the United Arab Emirate’s highest natural summit. See a related Weekly Roundup here.

Local officials are planning a two-mile cable car to connect the two Kansas Cities, one in the state of Missouri and one in the state of Kansas. The project appears to be spearheaded by a senior government official in Wyandotte County. A preliminary concept study to link the two downtowns, which are separated by the Missouri River, was produced a year ago and has been quietly soliciting comments. The cable car would connect somewhere between Case Park/Quality Hill on the Missouri side to an area near St. John’s Park/Strawberry Hill in Kansas.

Georgia’s Soviet-era cable cars in Chiatura are finally getting an upgrade. Earlier this year four of Chiatura’s cable cars were renovated and modernized while some were preserved as national heritage monuments. Seventeen lines of cable cars were built in 1954 to move miners. Productivity increased with the cable cars which were also known as the “metal coffins.” In 1991, Chiatura became a ghost town and most cable cars were retired in 2016.

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12
Nov

2021

Weekly Roundup: Kenya Connected

A map showing a view of Mombasa island, Kenya from a satellite — A satellite image of Mombasa Island, Kenya, where a cable car is one step closer to connecting the island to the country’s South coast.
Photo credit: NASA via Wikimedia Commons, license

The Likoni Cable Car in Kenya is one step closer after the National Land Commission (NLC) reserved .85 acres for the project. The cable car management body will submit a plan to NLC to secure the land. The system would connect Mombasa Island with the South Coast and replace ferry and floating bridge operations. See a related Weekly Roundup here.

Breckenridge Town Council has approved the master plan for the Breckenridge Grand Vacations. The plan includes installation of a gondola to meet transit needs. Analysts expect 95% of pedestrians will use a gondola to get around the Breckenridge Grand Vacations development.

A third-party study confirmed the Edmonton urban gondola project’s business model is commercially viable. When Prairie Sky, the company behind the project, presented the model to the community, many questioned the numbers. As part of the due diligence process, a third-party firm was hired to do an analysis of the plan. The analysis was positive but to get the project built Prairie Sky still needs city approval for real estate negotiations and rezoning, which includes public and Indigenous consultation. Current estimates are for the gondola to open in 2025. See a related Weekly Roundup here. SCJ Alliance, the parent company of the Gondola Project, has been retained to provide gondola expertise for this project.

Prague, Czech Republic, has launched a new architectural competition for the design of a cable car for the city. The cable car will connect the Podbaba, Troja, and Bohnice neighborhoods. The system is expected to be 2.3 kilometers long with three stations and be integrated with the current tram and bus stops.

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The Gondola Project

Uncategorized

Weekly Roundup: Replacement Lifts

Weekly Roundup: New Horizons

Weekly Roundup: Proposals Big and Small

Weekly Roundup: Out with the Old, In with the New

Weekly Roundup: Tourism Boosts

Weekly Roundup: Solving a Kansas/Missouri Problem

Weekly Roundup: Kenya Connected

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