On the mountain
Top priority is given to maintenance work on the lifts!
... when the gondolas take a break
In the summer months the cable-car engineers spend up to 2,500 hours per lift working on preventive maintenance.
Gasteiner Bergbahnen’s ‛inventory’ includes 26 lifts: funiculars and aerial ropeways, gondola cable-cars, chair lifts and T-bars as well as six conveyors. “Where there is technology there are also risks“, Manfred Millinger, engineering plant manager on the Schlossalm, explains. For this reason each lift undergoes a thorough annual overhaul. This work ends with a general inspection of every lift with a brake test under full load and at maximum speed. Every five years an extensive external inspection is carried out by independent technical experts. Regular rescue practice and staff training also takes place.
“Our peak period is in summer”, Millinger continues, as overhauls and checks on engines, brakes, electrical controls, ropes and thousands of other parts of the lifts can only take place when the lift is stationary.
In addition servicing and maintenance is carried out on the 23 snow cats and snow-making facilities (353 snowguns and lances) with their 427 connection points, the pumping stations, the eight avalanche blasting systems and three towers.
