7 replies to this topic

[Bogong]

High Noon Express at Ruapehu in New Zealand
Posted on 17 June 2010 at 08:20 AM

During early afternoon on Tuesday 15 June staff de-icing and checking the High Noon Express at Turoa discovered tower 9 has been damaged as illustrated in the attached photos (which were taken on the 16th). The line had been checked and deiced the day before. Preliminary assessment is the tower has sustained significant shock load from natural release of cable ice and this is not due to any design or structural defect in the lift.

Yesterday we had a clearance in the weather and have been able to commence removal of all damaged components and expect to have this complete by the weekend.

Doppelmayr are fast tracking delivery of all necessary plans and specifications that may be required to achieve reconstruction of a new tower. We have engaged a NZ engineering workshop to undertake this work. Current expectations are this will take up to two weeks from when the damaged components are delivered to their workshop.

From the preliminary assessment completed to date our best estimate is the lift will be out of action for 3 – 4 weeks.
The good news is the snow cover for this time of the year is excellent as illustrated in attached photos taken today around the site of the damaged tower.

 

http://www.mtruapehu...articleId/2025/

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The Doppelmayr lift is only 2 years old. Nope, the cause wasn't an especially fat person riding the lift. Apparently it snapped in half after rime and ice build up, (much more common in Aust & NZ than elsewhere), froze the cable to the tower, so when it was started in the morning, the cable pulled the tower over.

They are not wasting any time in replacing it as the ski season is just starting down here in Australia and New Zealand and they say they will have another tower installed and the lift running in 3 weeks. I've never heard of a tower being replaced in deep snow, so it will be interesting to watch how they do it.

Here's a picture of them removing the tower only 2 days after it broke.

[Skier123]

Have you noticed that Doppelmayr has been having tower problems lately? Back in 2008 with the Blackcomb Excalibur gondola and now this.
Not to say that this one is necessarily the fault of Doppelmayr CTEC, although the other one certainly was.

I've also heard a lot about technical problems with Garaventa CTEC lifts, especially the Stealth 2 model.

The only recent problem that I've heard of about Leitner-Poma lifts is Deep Temerity's back-up engine failure.

Once again, I know this is a rather broad question, but in general, do Doppelmayr CTEC or Leitner-Poma lifts have more problems?

[Phalanger]

Skier123, on 20 June 2010 - 07:25 AM, said:

Have you noticed that Doppelmayr has been having tower problems lately? Back in 2008 with the Blackcomb Excalibur gondola and now this.
Not to say that this one is necessarily the fault of Doppelmayr CTEC, although the other one certainly was.

I think you will find that was a maintenance issue in Blackcomb (water jacking from build-up in the tower that had not be released).

In this case they were not running the night time drive due to early season and this mountain is notorious for it's ice build up. They groom the runs again in the morning to soften them up after overnight icing. Some lifts have had their cables damaged here cause of icing getting into the cable.

[liftmech]

Skier123, on 20 June 2010 - 07:25 AM, said:

Have you noticed that Doppelmayr has been having tower problems lately? Back in 2008 with the Blackcomb Excalibur gondola and now this.
Not to say that this one is necessarily the fault of Doppelmayr CTEC, although the other one certainly was.

I've also heard a lot about technical problems with Garaventa CTEC lifts, especially the Stealth 2 model.

The only recent problem that I've heard of about Leitner-Poma lifts is Deep Temerity's back-up engine failure.

Once again, I know this is a rather broad question, but in general, do Doppelmayr CTEC or Leitner-Poma lifts have more problems?

As phalanger said, the Blackcomb issue had nothing to do with who built the lift. I can think of at least one similar incident from almost every manufacturer out there.

Before we get too off-topic, this thread is about the tower that bent from the weight of rime ice and not general lift issues.
Just before this happened, we got some photos from one of our patrollers who works down there during our summer. They were pretty impressive, with whole towers caked in rime. That's a lot of load for one tower.

[Bogong]

 The fun thing is that Mt Ruapheu is one of the most active volcanoes in the world.

It pops it's top every five years or so and any map of the summit area showing lakes and peaks soon becomes obsolete as the mountain "remodels" itself.

So things like rime and ice bending a tower is fairly minor as far as the lift company's contingency plans go.

This post has been edited by Bogong: 24 June 2010 - 05:42 AM

[vonroll101]

This might be a bit off topic,What is the wall thickness on the tubular towers?Sorry,I feel a bit out of place due to I works on extremly old Ropeways.Thanks for Understanding..

[rniemi]

vonroll101, on 28 June 2010 - 04:19 PM, said:

This might be a bit off topic,What is the wall thickness on the tubular towers?Sorry,I feel a bit out of place due to I works on extremly old Ropeways.Thanks for Understanding..

Greetings,

Out of curiosity, which specific VR101 installation(s) do you work on, and what type of work?

The wall thickness of tower tubes varies depending on the manufacturer, specific load of that tower, and in some cases, which surplus oil pipeline tubing the lift manufacturer was able to obtain the cheapest during fabrication. Anything from 1/8" to 1" wall thickness can typically be found depending on the installation and tower engineering.

-Ryan

[vonroll101]

rniemi, on 01 July 2010 - 09:30 PM, said:

Greetings,

Out of curiosity, which specific VR101 installation(s) do you work on, and what type of work?

The wall thickness of tower tubes varies depending on the manufacturer, specific load of that tower, and in some cases, which surplus oil pipeline tubing the lift manufacturer was able to obtain the cheapest during fabrication. Anything from 1/8" to 1" wall thickness can typically be found depending on the installation and tower engineering.

-Ryan

SeaWorld San Diego,Tulsa State Fair.Pretty much on call if needed.Have a few years under my belt on the VR101s.Worked on the Disneyland Skyway as well.(That's where I learned at.)Thanks