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"Ice Jacking" led to gondola collapse; not without warning
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by TDH | December 19, 2008 at 10:14 am
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Officials of the Whistler Blackcomb ski resort, the site of a recent gondola tower failure, are attributing the cause of the accident to an extremely rare situation known as "ice-jacking."
the tower failure occurred when water seeped into a splice on a section of tower four on the lift. The water froze as temperatures plummeted, rupturing the splice as it expanded into ice.
Though the event is the result of a rare occurrence, it is apparent that previous incidents of a similar nature were reported. Doppelmayr CTEC Ltd, the manufacturer of the collapsed Excalibur Gondola Tower at Whistler, issued a report years ago warning of this potentially catastrophic structural failure, after a similar tower collapsed in Idaho,
A similar tower, made by Doppelmayr CTEC Ltd., collapsed almost two years ago on a ski hill near Kellogg, Idaho, and the manufacturer had issued a safety alert to all its customers, including Whistler Blackcomb.
The recommended test protocol issued by Doppelmayr does not incorporate circumstances involving concrete, which is used in four towers on the Excalibur lift, including the tower in question.
We've relied on that safety system now for many years, and it's worked for us well. But obviously, it did not work for us here at Whistler," said Warren Sparks, executive vice-president of Doppelmayr.
"A huge amount of the safety relies on the ongoing operation and maintenance skills of the owners," Sparks said.
Many of the lifts and gondolas at Whistler Blackcomb are manufactured by Doppelmayr, including the recently opened record breaking Peak to Peak gondola which will play a major role in the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (1)
at 09:01 on January 6th, 2009
I think its important to get past the downplaying of this incident. People were injured and due to pure luck, none were killed.
If two airliners crashed due to similar problems two years apart let me tell you there would be serious investigations going on, independent of the airline company.
Here we see Doppelmayr conducting an 'independent' analysis of the tower failure.
If it were airplanes or trains that failed or crashed it would be the government agencies taking the lead in conducting an analysis and providing recommendations. In Canada, this would be the Transportation Safety Board. Just what is the role of the BC Safety Authority in this? BC Safety Authority released a statement just a day after appearing to know what happened and telling people everything is safe. Is the role of the BC Safety Authority to garner confidence in the skiing public, in getting Whistler up and running and making money?
Doppelmayr specified in their safety bulletin to ski hills regarding water getting into their towers and the force of freezing ice on the weld joints what was to be inspected and the criteria for shutting down the lift and doing repairs. I just wonder how Whistler conducted these inspections on these towers and how often. It is not an easy task to inspect all the welds on the towers from top to bottom in very difficult terrain. Again, how did they conduct these inspections?
Enough downplaying by both government officials and those companies directly involved. Enough of having PR spokespersons who have no technical knowledge provide information to the media and public.