The Scottish Government\u2019s HIE (Highlands and Islands Enterprise) agency has approved the Cairngorm funicular will not resume its activities until the \u201csecond half of 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n
The railway at the ski resort was scheduled to reopen early next year following strengthening work on the 1.9km viaduct that supports the track.<\/p>\n
Balfour started work in April 2021 but delays have arisen because of \u201ctechnical challenges associated with designing and implementing effective solutions to an existing structure, as opposed to a new build.\u201d<\/p>\n
Work has also been limited by the impact of Covid and extreme weather comprising blizzard conditions in the spring.<\/p>\n
HI stated: \u201cextra effort has also been required to source vital construction materials that are currently in short supply across the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carroll Buxton, HIE interim chief executive mentioned: \u201cWe\u2019ve always been upfront in describing the reinstatement program as one of the most complex and difficult civil engineering projects in Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n
She continued: \u201cAs well as managing technical challenges, the team has to take great care to protect the mountain environment, and deal with difficult terrain and extreme weather conditions that can quickly become hazardous.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also added: \u201cThe original schedule was very ambitious, even without the impacts of the pandemic lasting as long as they have and before the more recent problems in sourcing construction materials of suitable quality.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith limited time available to complete these works before winter, the postponement has become inevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The funicular was constructed by Morrison Construction and started in 2001 but was taken out of service in 2018 after an engineers\u2019 inspection identified structural defects that raised safety concerns.<\/p>\n
Buxton asserted: \u201cWe\u2019re now working with our designers and contractors on a revised schedule for the remainder of the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cHarsh mountain conditions mean that all work will need to halt over winter and resume next spring. To ensure safety, there also needs to be a period of testing and certification at the end of the program, so our current expectation is that the funicular can be relaunched in autumn 2022.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cClearly, a longer timescale will also have a financial impact. We\u2019ll be reviewing costs very carefully and will publicly confirm a revised budget as soon as it\u2019s possible to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
HIE has also confirmed up to \u00a3780,000 for an extensive refurbishment of the Ptarmigan building that sits on the plateau and comprises the UK\u2019s highest restaurant, a shop, exhibition space, and viewing platforms.<\/p>\n
Following a competitive tender, Simpson Builders Ltd, based in Beauly, received a contract from resort operator Cairngorm Mountain (Scotland) Ltd (CMSL) for the first phase of the Ptarmigan works. The refurbishment is planned to begin at the end of August and be finished by the end of 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Scottish Government\u2019s HIE (Highlands and Islands Enterprise) agency has approved the Cairngorm funicular will not resume its activities until the \u201csecond half of 2022.\u201d The railway at the ski resort was scheduled to reopen early next year following strengthening work on the 1.9km viaduct that supports the track. Balfour started work in April 2021 but delays have arisen because of \u201ctechnical challenges associated with designing and implementing effective solutions to an existing structure, as opposed to a new build.\u201d Work has also been limited by the impact of Covid and extreme weather comprising blizzard conditions in the spring. HI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,43],"tags":[694,819,820,821],"class_list":["post-4441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-project-show-case","tag-balfour-beatty","tag-cairngorm-funicular","tag-hie","tag-uks-highest-railway","post--single"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}