Construction of London’s first urban cable car came a step closer to opening yesterday as all 34 cabins of the Emirates Air Line took off for their inaugural load testing ‘flight’.
The successful test follows last month’s completion of the Emirates Air Line’s three towers with cabling extended across the river. The cabins will travel across 1.1km of cable, gliding 90m above the Thames with weights representing the maximum number of passengers before the Emirates Air Line opens for passenger service in summer 2012.
The cable car will have the capacity to carry up to 2,500 people per hour in each direction – the equivalent of 30 buses per hour.
The London mayor’s office has secured £36M from Emirates to fund the connection which will create a direct link between the O2 and ExCeL, and an additional interchange between the Jubilee Line and Docklands Light Railway.
“The speed with which we have gone from designs to safety testing of the Emirates Air Line is a clear demonstration of London’s ability to deliver world class projects and attract major investment,” said London mayor Boris Johnson This new transport link is set to support my plans to transform east London into a vibrant new metropolitan quarter boasting new jobs, homes and enterprise.
Design, build and operating contractor Mace has been working alongside cable car specialist Doppelmayr to carry out the testing.
You might also like...
Long distance drone monitoring one step closer to reality
A power company in the United States has successfully conducted a test with a beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone flight to monitor power lines, paving the way for long distance remote monitoring of infrastructure.
Concrete 'falling off' closed Liverpool flyover
Concrete has been “falling off” the structurally unsound Churchill flyover, the Lord Mayor of Liverpool Christine Banks has claimed.
NAO to investigate Crossrail delay and cost increases
The National Audit Office (NAO) has announced it is to investigate the delay and cost increases on the £15.4bn Crossrail project.
Road industry urged to prepare for autonomous vehicles
Transport bosses have called on the road industry to prepare for a roll out of autonomous and electric vehicle infrastructure.
Have your say
You must sign in to make a comment
Please remember that the submission of any material is governed by our Terms and Conditions and by submitting material you confirm your agreement to these Terms and Conditions. Please note comments made online may also be published in the print edition of New Civil Engineer. Links may be included in your comments but HTML is not permitted.
Readers' comments (1)
Stuart Shurlock18 May, 2012 2:23 pm
There is a strong lesson here to be learnt from how quickly this transport project has gone from inception to commissioning. Compared with other fixed links, it has been progressed at positively supersonic speed. However much we think this link is a bit of a gimmick, it certainly suggests that cable-cars based on gondolas are a very feasible way of closing transport gaps quickly and simply.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment