The Table Mountain Cableway Company’s annual maintenance shutdown is officially underway. Here’s what’s happening…
Table Mountain Cableway maintenance on schedule
In a recent media briefing, the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company (TMACC) said that their yearly maintenance is progressing according to schedule. Wahida Parker, Managing Director of TMACC, claimed that the maintenance process this year was quite extensive and involved various complex tasks undertaken by teams consisting of internal technical staff and specialist technicians from the equipment manufacturers.
“The five-week-long shutdown allows for the maintenance of the Cableway’s upper and lower stations and the cabins. Some building and construction work is also taking place,” Parker said.
The shutdown is mandatory and important to ensure safety on the cableway, allowing it to run optimally, and assuring that the cableway company complies with the safety standards set by Seilbahnen Schweiz, which is the Swiss Governing body for Cablecars, as well as BAV, the Swiss Department of Transport.
Emile Streicher, Executive Manager of Technical at the cableway company said that the main focus during this year’s maintenance was on the track-ropes which carry the majority of the weight of the cablecars, as well as the brackets from which the cabins are suspended.
“Servicing is done according to a service schedule which is time, usage, and condition-based. Many of the specified service intervals are more than six years and servicing tasks usually differ from year to year,” Streicher stated.
What’s been completed?
According to Tourism Update, so far, the following tasks have been completed since the shut down:
- The two track-ropes on Cabin 2’s side (western side) have been shifted to eliminate the most frequently stressed sections moving along the supports at the Lower Station. 38m of previously unused rope has been fed into the system for each track rope at the top station, and 38m of each rope has been removed at the lower station and reattached to the 130-ton counterweights.
- Performed non-destructive testing and inspections on critical loadbearing components.
- The wood supports for the track-ropes for Cabin 2 at Top station have been replaced.
- The slack carriers for Cabin 2 have been overhauled and inspected for structural integrity.
- The loadbearing brackets from which Cabin 1 is suspended have been replaced successfully.
- The Variable Frequency Drives that control the movement and speed of the main electric motor for the cable car, have been serviced and tested successfully.
All cable car operations are scheduled to be suspended from 25 July to 28 August 2022. Food and beverage sales at the lower station, however, are still expected to continue. Hikers will also still be allowed to make their way up and down the mountain by foot.
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