Uncategorized

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.
  • 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
  • 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.


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05
Nov

2021

Weekly Roundup: A Ropeway Saves 3,500 Steps

Prior to the installation of a ropeway system, the only way in and out of Nongtraw Village, India, was this 3,500 step stairway.
Photo credit: Zizira, image linked to their site
  • A new ropeway system in Nongtraw Village, India opened. The project was launched by the North East Slow Food and Agrobiodiversity Society (NESFAS) to help farmers transport their agricultural produce, livestock, and other materials. Prior to the ropeway system the only way in and out of Nongtraw was a 3,500 step stairway. The community also recently received the Best 2021 Sustainability Publication award by Hallbars and the Alfred Nobel Museum.


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29
Oct

2021

Weekly Roundup: Gondolas Gain Support

The Guatemala City, Guatemala metropolitan area anticipates a new 8.9km cable car system following congressional approval.
Photo credit: Rudy Cano, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons


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22
Oct

2021

Weekly Roundup: A Buffalo-Themed Cable Car

Jamestown, North Dakota is planning to make “The World’s Largest Buffalo” statue no longer their biggest tourism draw. Design and planning is complete for a new buffalo theme park, including gondola.
  • In the article 7 Major Transformations to Solve Urban Inequality, Medellín, Colombia’s Metrocable K line is highlighted. It’s sighted as an example of how investing in safe, non-polluting, and affordable multimodal public transportation services, including cable cars, can tame congestion and connect poor, peripheral or hillside communities with jobs in the city center.
  • A cable car over the interstate is one solution being looked at in Albany, New York to reconnect the community with the Hudson River waterfront. Currently the major thoroughfare cuts the city off from the riverfront and isolates some of the poorest neighborhoods. The mile-long Capital District Gondola would be an estimated four-minute trip over the freeway system for commuters and tourists, according to a 2016 feasibility study.


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15
Oct

2021

Weekly Roundup: New Adventures

A view of Chuncheon City, South Korea in 2008 before their new gondola system was put in. Photo credit: thedakotakid from Shanghai, China, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In the first six hours after opening, the Lake Cable Car had 1,500 visitors. The cable car is located in Chuncheon City in South Korea, 85 kilometers east of Seoul. The system is 3.6 kilometers long with a total of 66 cabins in operation, 20 of which have transparent floors.

The Werribee Open Range Zoo in Australia is looking for public feedback on its proposed Sky Safari gondola. The total cost for the expansion is $83 million. The tree-top gondola will travel 1.6 kilometers and take 40 minutes round trip.

The Table Mountain Cableway in South Africa is celebrating its 92nd birthday. To celebrate, ticket prices were cut in half for South Africans for the month of October. The system opened on October 4, 1929 and was made of wooden cabins with tin roofs. Over the last 92 years, the system has seen 29 million passengers and now has three times the capacity and revolving cabins.

Thredbo Mountain Bike Park in Australia opened the Merritts Gondola. The gondola provides guests access to existing and new trails and for the first time opens the area to mountain bikers and hikers.



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08
Oct

2021

Weekly Roundup: Rethinking Transit for Climate Change

The Transmicable system in Bogotá, Colombia is a focus of a recent NY Times article.
Photo credit: Barto920203, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons


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