[WRE | UPDATE]
NORTHERN STRANDS Supplies Rope to Axis Mountain Technical for Stunning Skybridge
BY: BOB GLENN, EDITOR
affords dramatic views of Whistler Bowl falling away below the peaks. Early visitors have filled online travel sites with awed reviews of the facility, and its construction was no less dramatic than the views it affords those visitors.
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Several remarkable Canadian firms teamed up on essential elements of the project. Ryan Foster, a Principal and managing partner with Axis Mountain Technical from Terrace, British Columbia filled us in on some details about the bridge and its construction. Te decking of the suspension bridge is made up of 101 modules, the majority of which can be removed and stowed away from the elements during the off- season. Te bridge is operated as part of Whistler Blackcomb’s Peak 2 Peak 360 Experience which is a summer season program for resort visitors. Four wire ropes – 48mm IWRC 35x7 Compacted
Galv. NR Grade 1960 LLL – supplied by Northern Strands of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, form the core of the structure. As installed, the ropes span 125.25 meters, but allow only 55cm of sag in that span, with each rope tensioned to over 50 Tons. Axis brought in Rigging Specialties of Cranmore, Alberta for stinging and tension of these four ropes. As a supplier of products for a variety of rigging applications, as well as specialized solutions for the aerial and urban ropeways industry, “Rigging Specialties is a go-to when extreme rope work is required” Foster exclaimed. For Axis, the design and build phases of the project spanned 18 months from tender award to completion. Remarkably, construction work in the field was completed in 4 months. As for the impact of weather, Foster offered that “challenging weather conditions at Whistler Peak made this project inherently difficult. Over half of the 4-month work window was beleaguered by foul weather such as snow storms and extreme wind and rain.”
68 JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2019 WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE
n the Summer of 2018, Canada’s Whistler Blackcomb resort in British Columbia unveiled the Cloudraker Skybridge. Te bridge, thought to be among the highest elevation suspension bridges in the world, connects Whistler Peak (elevation 7160’) with nearby West Ridge. Including abutments, the bridge is 463 feet long, and
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