Doppelmayr

News Roundup: South America

Peter LandsmanLeave a comment

This is an open thread.  Feel free to leave a comment on anything lift-related.

Sweetwater Gondola August Update from Jackson Hole

Peter Landsman2 Comments

IMG_0518

When riders on the tram ask about the construction going on at JHMR this summer, they rarely believe an entire gondola can be built in one summer.  “That’s going to be done this winter?!,” they say.  The answer of course is yes, and after a few months of work you can start to see why.  Since Doppelmayr flew the new gondola’s towers in late July, work has shifted to the mid and top terminals.  Over four days last week, a crane set the steel beams and tunnels for the Solitude mid-station.  This station is huge and will eventually serve a beginner complex with magic carpets, a rental center, cafeteria and more.  It will also be the site of the gondola’s cabin storage and maintenance facility, to be built next summer.

IMG_0434
Doppelmayr crews put together the erector set at Solitude.
IMG_0651
The mid-station is big in both height and length!

Not much has changed at the bottom station, where steel was set in early July.  The top/drive terminal is now the center of the action, where the last concrete for the masts will be poured this week.

Continue reading →

Olympic Spotlight Shines on Rio and its Teleféricos

Peter Landsman1 Comment

With the Olympics opening tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, the world looks to a seaside metropolis with more than six million residents and the first South American city to host an Olympic Games.  While Brazil has no ski resorts, Rio features aerial lifts ranging from hundred year-old tramways to modern gondolas connecting the city’s favelas to the regional transit network.

The famous Sugarloaf Mountain twin tramways were among the world’s first cableways of any kind when they debuted in 1912.  A century later, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff championed development of a five-section Poma gondola connecting some of Rio’s largest slums, modeled after the pioneering gondola network in Medellín.  In 2013, Doppelmayr built a three-station gondola in Morro da Providência, serving more than 5,000 residents in one of Rio’s oldest favelas.  Further urban cable projects proposed for Rio have faltered as the city works to combat challenges we’ve become all too familiar with leading up to the Games.

Teleférico do Alemão

Teleférico do Alemão is one of the largest and most complex gondola systems in the world with six stations and 152 10-passenger Sigma Diamond cabins.  Built by Poma and operated by private train company SuperVia, Teleférico do Alemão opened July 7, 2011. The system is capable of transporting 3,000 passengers per hour over 2.2 miles of dense neighborhoods in 16 minutes.  The lift changes angle four times, including a 100-degree turn at Alemão Station.

Bondinho_do_Complexo_do_Alemão_Panorama_06_2014
Teleférico do Alemão’s striking gondola stations also serve as community centers.  Photo credit: Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz via Creative Commons

70,000 residents are eligible for two free rides daily on the gondola, which links favelas in the Complexo do Alemão to the Bonsucesso train station. Six expansive rooftop stations that feature banks, stores and social services rise above the favelas.  The gondola system cost approximately $74 million to build and serves 9,000 daily riders.  Initial ridership estimates of 30,000 per day have not been realized as Rio has struggled to attract non-residents to ride the teleférico through crime-ridden neighborhoods.  Unlike in Medellín and La Paz, residents have criticized the construction of an expensive gondola through communities that lack electricity, clean water and basic sanitation.

Continue reading →

News Roundup: For Sale

Peter Landsman4 Comments

In Pictures: Sweetwater Gondola Towers Fly

Peter Landsman1 Comment

Teams from Doppelmayr and Timberline Helicopters put on a show yesterday in Teton Village as they flew 21 towers for JHMR’s new Sweetwater Gondola. The new gondola rises out of the base area with a mid-station at Solitude and tops out next to Casper Restaurant. With each tower flown in 4-6 sections, Brian and his co-pilot completed somewhere around a hundred laps up the hill over six hours using a UH-60 Black Hawk.  There’s still a lot of work to go before November 24th but Sweetwater is starting to look like a lift!

Continue reading →

News Roundup: Villages

Peter Landsman2 Comments

Mi Teleférico to Build 11th Gondola Line in La Paz

Peter Landsman3 Comments

The urban ropeway revolution will continue in Bolivia’s capital city of La Paz, where President Evo Morales announced Friday an 11th gondola line, Linea Celeste (Sky Blue Line) will join the Mi Teleférico gondola network.  La Paz and the neighboring city of El Alto announced the Red, Yellow and Green gondola lines in 2012 and the world’s largest urban gondola system opened throughout 2014.  President Morales unveiled plans for phase two with six more lines in 2015 with another added to the mix last February.  All 11 lines will be 10-passenger monocable detachable gondolas built by Doppelmayr. This latest investment of $110 million comes on top of $234 million for phase one and $450 million for the first six lines of phase two.

13775790_1455945891097548_85183511035693449_n

The Sky Blue branch will stretch nearly 9,000 linear feet with four stations, 27 towers and 159 CWA 10-passenger cabins. It is expected to be the busiest line in the system, serving the heart of the city and up to 4,000 passengers per hour at six meters per second.  The three existing lines operate at up to 5 m/s.  A trip from end to end on Linea Cileste will take 11.8 minutes.  A line previously dubbed Sky Blue will now be known as the Gold Line.  At the current rate, Mi Teleférico is going to run out of colors soon!

FOLLETO (85x61cm)OK

Continue reading →

Sweetwater Gondola July Update from Jackson Hole

Peter Landsman1 Comment
IMG_9018
The new Sweetwater Gondola return terminal seen from the tram on July 13th.

A lot has fallen into place since my last update on the new Sweetwater Gondola going in at Jackson Hole, the only new gondola at a North American ski resort for 2016.  All three terminal sites required significant excavation and utility relocation which is largely complete.  A crane set all of the big steel at the bottom terminal last Thursday and Friday.  The station is nowhere near as big as the Bridger Gondola’s, which was designed for a rope speed of 1,200 fpm nearly 20 years ago (Sweetwater has a design speed of 800 fpm.)  It is significantly longer and taller than the Teewinot quad next door, however. Sweetwater’s custom bottom terminal skin will arrive from Austria later this summer.

IMG_9036
Return terminal and operator house in progress.
IMG_9049
Line gauge bullwheel seen from below.

All 21 towers arrived in sections from Salt Lake City in early July and will be flown in place at the end of the month next Wednesday.  The lifting frames are the “American style” rather than the Euro-style ones Doppelmayr uses on some large gondolas.  All the tower foundations are finished and ready for fly day.

Continue reading →

News Roundup: Signs of Life

Peter LandsmanLeave a comment

News Roundup: Making Moves

Peter LandsmanLeave a comment