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January 2013 Reprinted from ELEVATOR WORLD
Category
Project
Year
of
the
2013
9
Automated People Movers
One of the initial challenges involved
trying to construct the two main towers
(both 86 m tall and weighing 570 mT) to
accommodate the river crossing and
one smaller intermediate tower, which
measures more than 65 m in height and
weighs 270 mT. The size of the towers,
the fact that one had to be positioned in
the Thames River and the need for ex-
acting stability as a core requirement for
the operation of the cable car also pre-
sented several challenges. However, the
design of the towers, using a complex
helix structure to link the four steel rib-
bons, assisted in providing the needed
stability. The towers, made of approxi-
mately 6,500 pieces of steel of varying
thicknesses (30-50 mm), were then
welded together before being connected
to helix tubes that run inside the tower
and provide the required stiffness.
There are three main towers and two
compression towers. The main towers
support the system at height, and the
compression towers provide rope diver-
sion from the stations to the head of the
towers. The main towers had to be con-
structed to allow for a 51-m-tall ship to
pass under the system at high tide,
which is scheduled for twice a day. Each
tower has been topped with a Doppel-
mayr head (named after a cable-car
contractor), which allows the cabling to
run across the tops of the structures.
The cable is made of twisted steel com-
prised of 300 separate strands, is 50 mm
thick and stretches 1.1 km across the
river. The use of boats was required to
make the initial rope connection during
the short allotted timeframe during low
tide. The cable was pulled into place and tensioned using a 12-T winch located on the
platform of the South Terminal (Emirates Greenwich Peninsula). The cable was clamped
and secured at each terminal and tensioned to gain a minimum clearance of 54 m above
the high-water mark.
East London Cable Car,
London, U.K.
Continued
The project’s south tower and one of Europe’s largest cranes
