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Bartholet Completes Zero Gauge Tramway in France

Peter Landsman2 Comments
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Workers recently hung the two Gangloff cabins on an innovative new tramway in Brest, France. Photo credit: Ouest France

What if you could squeeze a large double-reversible tramway into the footprint of a much smaller single-haul system?  The city of Brest, France and Bartholet of Switzerland will open such a tram in October.  Because its two cabins are never on the same half of the line at the same time, the Téléphérique de Brest has only one dock at each end and cabins pass directly on top of one another near a 270-foot tall center tower. Other lifts have been built with zero-gauge sections before (notably in Caribbean rainforests) but never on this scale or for their entire length.  The new ropeway is also France’s first lift in a true urban environment.

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Facing a need connect two points high over The Penfeld river in this Navy port, the City of Brest selected a ropeway instead of a massive bridge or expensive tunnel.  The government held a design competition in 2014 and selected the Swiss firm Bartholet Maschinenbau Flums (BMF) together with the French construction conglomerate Bouygues.  Fellow BMF Group subsidiary Gangloff supplied two ultramodern 60-passenger cabins.  The project cost €19 million versus an estimated €30 to 60 for a new bridge.  BMF also recently built two double-reversible tramways in Mexico.

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The City of Brest will open its new tramway in October.  Photo credit: Bartholet

The system has four track ropes, two haul rope loops and four drive motors. The cabins are hung like those on a funitel and can operate in winds up to 70 miles per hour.  Each loop is driven by two 135 horsepower motors but if one fails the loops can be mechanically connected and run using the remaining three motors to ensure near 100 percent uptime.  The slope length of the tramway is a short 1,352 feet with a line speed of 7.5 m/s.  The system will transport up to 1,220 commuters per hour in each direction starting in October.  Check out videos of system testing here.

News Roundup: Champagne

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County Schedules October Auction of Tamarack High Speed Quads

Peter Landsman10 Comments

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The Tamarack Express is a 2004 Leitner-Poma detachable quad 8,061′ long x 1,839′ vertical.
Valley County, Idaho has seized Tamarack’s two remaining high speed chairlifts and plans to auction them on October 17th over nonpayment of taxes.  Tamarack Resort owes the county $4.7 million in back taxes and the auction is for assets on which hundreds of thousands of dollars are more than three years past due.  The auction includes 24 lots that will be sold to the highest bidder including two Leitner-Poma high speed quads that are located on state land.  Other items include a zip line, mid-mountain lodge and assets related the Osprey Meadows golf course.

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The Summit Express is a 2004 Leitner-Poma high speed quad 3,694′ long x 996′ vertical.
Tamarack built six Leitner-Poma and Doppelmayr CTEC lifts in 2004 and 2005 before filing for bankruptcy in 2008.  Bank of America re-possessed two Doppelmayr lifts in 2011 after Tamarack missed numerous lease payments.  The Tamarack Municipal Association purchased the Buttercup quad from the bank for $400,000 but determined it could not afford to buy and maintain the Wildwood Express detachable quad.  Bank of America Leasing wanted more than $2 million for that lift and instead sold it to Brian Head where it debuted as the Giant Steps Express in 2014.

Remains of Tamarack's Wildwood Express.
Highlander Ski Lift Services of McCall removed the Wildwood Express in 2012 with fewer than 2,000 hours on it.  Bank of America later sold it to Brian Head.
Now Tamarack’s last two major lifts are facing a similar fate.  The Tamarack Homeowners’ Association and owner New Tamarack Acquisitions Corporation say they are working with the county to avoid the sales and open the ski resort seven days a week this winter.  General Manager Brad Larsen told KTVB, “I don’t think the owner’s association is going to let [the auction] happen. They’re going to work with the county to make sure that we’ve got all the assets to operate.”  A Doppelmayr CTEC beginner chairlift named Discovery and Leitner-Poma platter called Rock Creek don’t appear to be on the auction block.

The sale is scheduled for Monday, October 17th at 1:00 pm with no reserves for the items.  The two lifts cost nearly $6 million new from Leitner-Poma in 2004.

Grand Canyon Escalade Debate Heats Up

Peter Landsman4 Comments
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The proposed Grand Canyon Escalade would descend more than 3,000 vertical feet into the Grand Canyon.

This week could prove pivotal in the fight over the future of the Grand Canyon and the proposed gondola adjacent to one of America’s most treasured National Parks.  On Monday, a member of the Navajo Nation formally submitted legislation to authorize $65 million for construction of a road to the site and infrastructure for the Escalade near the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers.  Confluence Partners LLC, a non-Navajo corporation based in Scottsdale, proposes a 1.4 mile gondola and related facilities to be located entirely on Navajo land but within a quarter mile of Grand Canyon National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Escalade idea is nothing new.  Confluence Partners has wanted to build a gondola from the canyon rim to the bank of the Colorado for years.  Under the proposed arrangement, the company will give the tribe between 8 and 18 percent of the Escalade’s revenue depending on ridership.  In addition to the gondola, the Escalade site plan includes a hotel, elevated river walk, amphitheater, restaurants and a gift shop.  Most of the 420-acre development would be on the canyon rim with the gondola connecting to a smaller complex 3,000 feet below along the Colorado.  The gondola could carry up to 10,000 passengers per day to the bottom of the canyon that today can only be reached by foot, boat, mule or helicopter. Confluence Partners says it will create 3,500 jobs on a reservation that suffers from 44 percent unemployment.  The jobs number sounds extremely optimistic to me.

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Riverwalk and lower gondola station site plan.

Under Navajo Nation law, a five-day public comment period lasts through Saturday and then the 23 members of the Navajo Council will vote on the bill.  For comparison, public comment periods for ski area master plans in National Forests last 30 days.  The President of the Nation has vowed to veto the Escalade bill but that could be over-ridden by a two-thirds majority, creating a mad dash by groups on both sides attempting to sway undecided members of the council.

The Grand Canyon Trust, American Rivers, Save the Confluence and others are circulating petitions this week and soliciting public comments to send to the tribe.  There’s no question the gondola is technically feasible and would provide a unique experience.  Whether such a development is appropriate for this particular location is an entirely different question.  You can tell the Navajo Nation what you think by emailing comments@navajo-nsn.gov by 5:00 pm Saturday, September 3rd.

News Roundup: Ski Train

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Waterville Valley’s Green Peak Expansion is a Go

Peter Landsman3 Comments

Waterville Valley will open new terrain for the first time in thirty years this winter, CEO Chris Sununu confirmed at a press conference this morning.  With $2 million in financing clearing just recently, SkyTrans Manufacturing will relocate the World Cup Triple this fall to serve the ten new trails on Green Peak.  The U.S. Forest Service approved the 45 acre expansion in 2013. In addition to managing Waterville Valley, Mr. Sununu is running for Governor of New Hampshire which could have something to do with the late-summer timing of the announcement.  He frequently cites his leadership and job creation at Waterville Valley on the campaign trail.

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The Green Peak triple chair will rise 1,011 vertical feet and move up to 1,800 skiers per hour over a slope length of 4,380′. SkyTrans, which specializes in refurbishing old lifts and relocating them to smaller ski resorts and amusement parks, has experience at Waterville.  SkyTrans General Manager Rich Combs said in a press release, “this project builds on our history, starting when O.D. Hopkins Associates, the predecessor to SkyTrans, installed the very first lifts at Waterville Valley Resort.”  Those lifts were all built by Stadeli and the mountain still operates six of them!

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The World Cup Triple in 2012 after being re-built by Doppelmayr following a fire.

The 1985 triple formerly known as World Cup has numerous Doppelmayr components thanks to a June 2000 lightning strike and fire. The bottom station building burned to the ground and the haul rope separated due to the heat.  Doppelmayr came in and replaced both stations and added a mid-station at the same time.  After the installation of the parallel White Peaks Express in 1988, World Cup only ran weekends and holidays and was removed starting in June. The move to Green Peak comes sooner than many expected and the new lift and terrain will open sometime this winter.

News Roundup: Co-Op

Peter Landsman4 Comments

Crazy Gondola Opens at Wynn Palace Cotai

Peter Landsman2 Comments

It seems the lift companies can build just about anything these days, even a gondola that turns six times at the request of a casino magnate.  Steve Wynn opened his $4.2 billion Wynn Palace yesterday in Macau, China along with one of the most complex gondola lifts ever built.  The casino’s SkyCab is monocable detachable that turns six times.  Doppelmayr designed the lift to run slowly enough that cabins can round four different bullwheels at line speed while only detaching at two loading and unloading stations, one of which has a ~110-degree angle on the roof of the main lobby.  An upcoming rail station will be integrated with the second station.  The entire system relies on the same principles Doppelmayr used to build a gondola at a zoo in Sweden that also makes six angle changes.

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Look closely, there are two bullwheels, four towers and a terminal in this photo.
Cabins reach nearly 100 feet over Performance Lake, where fountains perform to music every 15 minutes.  “A fanciful dragon lifts you into the sky, affording a spectacular view of our iconic Performance Lake, before gently setting you down in a garden, where a member of our talented Reception team welcomes you,” notes the Palace website. “Our SkyCabs have quickly emerged as one of the most talked-about attractions at Wynn Palace.”

CWA adapted standard 8-passenger Omega cabins into 6-passenger VIP versions with custom audio-visual systems and air conditioning.  Doppelmayr Cable Car will manage operations and maintenance for the system under a long-term contract.  If you are looking to make a career move and like the sound of dragon bullwheels, they are hiring.

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Sunday River to Build New Lift on Spruce Peak

Peter Landsman7 Comments

Sunday River announced this morning a $2.1 million Doppelmayr fixed-grip triple will replace the Spruce Peak triple, where a terminal literally fell over last month.   Willis MountainGuard and Boyne Resorts deemed the lift a loss after suspected grout failure sent the top station sliding from the bedrock it was anchored to the weekend of July 9th.  The 1986 Borvig triple was Sunday River’s second oldest lift and the new version will re-use its new Chairkit loading conveyor.  Doppelmayr will also replace the top terminal of Sunday River’s other Borvig triple on Locke Mountain.

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Exactly when the new lift will open is unclear.  Doppelmayr already has a packed summer building 17 lifts across the US and Canada.  In the meantime, most of Spruce Peak can be accessed from the Chondola and Aurora lifts.

This is far from the first (and won’t be the last) late-season lift replacement after unexpected disaster.  On June 11, 2012, a wildfire burned through Ski Apache in New Mexico, damaging two chairlifts and a gondola.  The Native American tribe that owns the mountain announced a $15 million deal with Doppelmayr on September 5th and three new lifts were completed by January.

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News Roundup: Commonwealth

Peter Landsman2 Comments