Bugs caused by cold weather plague new attraction
New river valley funicular troubled by cold, snow and emergency stop button
Extreme cold and blowing snow have proven to be the bane of Edmonton’s new river valley funicular.
City officials are working with the manufacturer to address the issue after blowing snow in the door tracks set off alarms several times this winter.
They also found temperatures below -25 C can cause the doors to malfunction, said Paul Specht, the city’s director of facilities maintenance. The doors become unsynchronized, which triggers a shutdown.
Fortunately, “the automatic default is for the doors to open.”
The new funicular beside the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald on 100 Street opened Dec. 9, creating a new way for those with mobility challenges to access the North Saskatchewan River valley from downtown.
Since then, it was out of service for three days due to extreme cold or blowing snow, challenges not foreseen during the design. It also shuts down for one day a month for scheduled maintenance.
“Consider it teething pain,” said Specht, who said unknowns should be expected when the city tries out new technology.
The project has a funicular or vertical railway for the top section of the slope, then a pedestrian bridge over Grierson Hill and viewpoint. An elevator is supposed to carry visitors from the viewpoint to the valley floor.
That elevator finally opened Feb. 16. It shut down again two days later and had to be reset after several young men started jumping inside the elevator and destabilized it. It also was closed last Thursday, with a sign saying it was shut for maintenance.
Specht said the funicular has stopped working several times because people push the emergency stop button, which sits right next to the regular operating buttons. People also trigger an emergency stop when they try to open the doors to let someone in. “More than we expected,” said Specht.
Any emergency stop triggers an alarm for the city’s 24-hour response team and security, who can reset the system. The city is trying to get protective covers to prevent anyone from hitting the stop button unnecessarily.
It’s unknown how many people have used the new amenity. City staff told Postmedia city officials are still making plans to measure use through a pedestrian counter.
Anecdotally, the funicular seems used but definitely not crowded. A light stream of walkers and cyclists plus a Segway tour used the feature on a cold weekday morning last week.
“I love it,” said Susan Yackulic, who rode during a walk to downtown Edmonton with a friend Thursday.
Yackulic lives on the south side of the river and hopes to use the funicular while cycling in the summer, or while going for brunch downtown.
“The view is amazing and it’s really smooth,” she said.