Work starts on new ski lift

Contractors remove the McDougall ski lift drive station at the Cardrona Alpine Resort on Monday...
Contractors remove the McDougall ski lift drive station at the Cardrona Alpine Resort on Monday to allow work to start on a new $10 million ‘‘chondola’’ lift, set to be completed in May. Photo: Geoff Wayatt.
Work on  Cardrona Alpine Resort’s new "chondola" lift started  this week.

The drive station from the old McDougall ski lift was removed on Monday and earthworks for the  $10 million  lift will start soon.

Almost all  the older lift has been now been removed, except  for the top station, which will  be  taken out once snow had been fully cleared.

Resort general manager Bridget Legnavsky said it would take the entire summer to complete the project.

The "chondola" will  feature one gondola cabin for every four chairs and  more than double the resort’s lift capacity between the base buildings and the top of the skifield.

Once earthworks were completed, foundations for the new lift would be laid but it would take some time for them to fully dry out, Ms Legnavsky said.

The project was  on schedule and  was expected to be completed by May, she said.

The lift would have a capacity of 2550 people per hour compared with 1000 on the older lift.

The  lift’s design would make the mountain  accessible to more visitors, particularly during the summer,  Ms Legnavsky said.

tim.miller@odt.co.nz

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