Remember the garden exhibition lift that first appeared in Rostock (IGA) in 2003 then was disassembled and reassembled in Munich (BUGA) in 2005?
Rostock 2003 / Munich 2005 gondola
Turns out, immediately following the BUGA show, the system was once again taken down and rebuilt … on a mountain. Yup, 40% of the system was re-used to construct the Imberg gondola lift at the Steibis ski resort in Bavarian Allgäu (southern Germany). And all in a matter of months — the dismantling starting in October and the system was in operation by mid-December of the same year.
The "new" 8-seater Imbergbahn MDG gondola
The Imberg gondola replaced a 54 year old chair lift.
6 Comments
What I love about this is the ability to just drag and drop these things quickly from one location to the next. Ski resorts have been buying older lifts from each other for years, and so it is not particularly new, however we are seeing a lot of relatively new, purpose/event driven systems installed for a short period of time prior to finding a new home. We can add transplantability (new word) to the list of cable’s assets.
Flexibility and adaptability of cable technology at its finest.
I feel it should also be mentioned that a lot of care and engineering goes into relocating these machines.
This is not like the traveling carnival that shows up at your autumn fair each year. Safety/code upgrades are common and dutifully carried out. All of the critical hardware (nuts and bolts) are replaced with new. Site specific engineering and customization occurs. Often the overall cost to re-engineer the system approaches that of a new system…but if you can purchase the machinery at a discount you can build yourself a cost efficient lift.
I believe the sheaves and cable were both replaced, as well.
Any idea of how much the relocation process costed? If it’s low enough, it could have implications on cities wanting to change a section of a route they’ve already established. It could mean providing a high level of service while mainting a little bit of route flexibility.
Rougly the 50 to 60% of the cost of a Gondola is in the start and end stations, another 10 to 20% in the cabins.
A relocation in urban environment would be even easier and much less costly respect a mountain one.
Cable lifts – particularly in europe – are subject to really strict controls , every year dismount and verification of all grips, verification of sheaves and pulleys , every 2/4 years (following the countries) magnetoscopy of all of the rope etc etc… so an used ropeway it is a safe option