[WRE UPDATE | PROJECT]
Staging area for the haul rope.
“Leitner-Poma and their engineering team did a superior job of ensuring that the supporting equipment for the haul rope was
done correctly.” – Clyde Weisner, Lift Maintenance Director for Vail Mountain
local offi cials had deemed questionable. Fortifying the bridge with steel plates enabled the oversized cargo to cross safely and without incident. “We had been planning this delivery for months, meeting weekly,
so we were able to anticipate the issue with the bridge and have the plates in place ahead of time,” Wiessner explains. “With a project of this size, there’s always some little hiccup. We addressed the problem and moved on.” Once the reel fi nally reached the base of Vail Mountain, it was
lifted by crane onto a concrete pad built specifi cally to receive the enormous load. And then Wiessner breathed a sigh of relief. If anything had gone
wrong during the shipping of the cable, ArcelorMittal would have had to construct a brand-new cable—a process that would have delayed the project by six months. “Needless to say, I was very happy to have the cable here in Vail after its long journey from France,” he says. From the concrete pad, a crew attached the cable to a lead line for rigging atop the 26 lift towers around the loop. T e lower terminal has a built-in hydraulic tensioning system, which keeps the cable at a constant tension, as it “rides” around a bull wheel, adds Wiessner. A team of 50 workers assisted with the installation of the cable, which took about a day and half to wind around the lift, up and down the mountain. Knight Equipment Splicing, of Bowling Green, Missouri, completed the 280-foot splice on November 1, more than two weeks before the grand opening of the gondola on November 16. Bruce Meinzer of Leitner-Poma explains why they chose the Knight team for the project, “What makes these guys so good is that they are able to maintain the consistency of diameter of the rope through the length
74 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2013 WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE
Knight Equipment Splicing hard at work.
Photos courtesy of Vail Resorts
of the splice. And that is critical for us because the grips that carry the cabins could land at any point along the length of the rope and for that to work properly the diameter has to be just so.” “All in all, it went very smoothly, considering the size of the project,” Weissner concludes.
Onward and Upward! Traveling at a rate of six meters per second (1,237 per minute), the Vail Mountain installation is considered the fastest single- cable 10-person gondola system in the world. T e new lift has the capacity to carry 3,600 riders per hour, and increases the uphill capacity by 40 percent over the Vista Bahn Express. It also cuts the ride time from 9 minutes to 7.5 minutes. “We’re incredibly fortunate to be able to continually reinvest in
Vail and to off er our guests a truly unique experience as they ride up the mountain,” remarks Chris Jarnot, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Offi cer of Vail Mountain. “T is new gondola will establish a whole new standard for comfort in lifts and—combined with speed and uphill capacity increase—will signifi cantly improve the guest experience at Vail Mountain.” In addition, the gondola has the ability to continue operation,
even in the event of a power outage, thanks to a multiple redundancy backup system. Despite the new gondola’s myriad advancements, the system’s electronics are so effi cient that it will use less power than the previous lift. “T e ride is smooth, and the lift moves quickly,” Wiessner notes.
“We’ve had no problems with the cable. T e guests have had lot of great things to say and are excited about it, as are we.” He credits the comfort of the gondola experience to both
Leitner-Poma, the project developer, and the wire rope manufacturer, ArcelorMittal. According to ArcelorMittal, the fi nished cable is one of the heaviest stranded ropes ever produced for such an application in North America. “Leitner-Poma and their engineering team did a superior job of ensuring that the supporting equipment for the haul rope was done correctly.” T e gondola runs year-round, through ski season and into the summer months, when tourists visit the mountain to engage in Vail’s many outdoor activities, including hiking, biking, zip lines, mountain coasters, climbing walls, area restaurants—and, of course, the beautiful views from the sky. ❙
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