The Christchurch Gondola had preventative maintenance work done yesterday on the Gondola cableway towers.
The 10-yearly tower maintenance schedule involves checking and replacing the
main axles and bushes in the sheave assemblies (used to support and hold down the gondola cable) on each tower.
The work is usually completed outside of operational hours and often at night, but the Christchurch Gondola team have taken the attraction’s closure due to COVID-19 as an opportunity to undertake the work during daylight hours.
The maintenance on the lower towers accessible from the ground has been completed, but a helicopter will be brought in to assist with work on the towers near the summit. This work involves precision flying to lift the sheave assemblies off the towers to the ground for the Christchurch Gondola engineers to complete the work on each of these before the assemblies are then airlifted back to the towers by helicopter.
Gondola’s planned re-opening on Wednesday 1 July when the complex will again be open to guests.
