THE EAGLE. The Gran Sasso cable car will be back in operation by June. It will remain open for the entire summer season and, in all likelihood, it will also be able to be used during the next winter season. The authorization for public establishments must be renewed every 30 days and on a monthly basis the Gran Sasso Tourist Center will send a report on the monitoring carried out on the facility to Ansfisa, the National Agency for the safety of railways and road and motorway infrastructures. In the meantime, the task of designing the work to replace the four load-bearing cables will be entrusted – the deadline for submitting the offer is 24 June – and the cables will be ordered.
THERE IS OPTIMISM
There is an air of optimism following the mayor’s announcement Pierluigi Biondiof the extension granted by the general manager of Ansfisa Pietro Marturano, with a note dated May 30. «Ansfisa’s positive response to the request for an extension of the exercise forwarded by the Municipality», says the sole administrator of the CTGS Dino Pignatelli, «demonstrates that the technical framework of the plant has not changed during commissioning and that safety conditions can continue to be guaranteed, as we have always maintained in recent months. We will get to work immediately to plan the activities and periodic checks required, in order to restart the cable car by the month of June, in time for the summer season”. From extension to extension, it should be possible to keep the plant open during the 2024/2025 winter season. «Considering the technical times for assigning the design of the intervention, the contract and the arrival of the four cables», adds Pignatelli, «we will find ourselves close to winter and therefore the hope is that the cable car will remain in operation , in order to save the winter season in Campo Imperatore and the economy of the entire area.” There are four companies that responded to the market survey for the assignment of executive planning, accounting, safety coordination in the design and execution phase and issuing the certificate of regular execution.
WHAT ANSFISA SAYS
Mayor Biondi’s surprise announcement came last Thursday, at the end of the extraordinary municipal council meeting dedicated to the critical issues of the Tourist Center and the safeguard measures for the company’s 40 operators, after the stop imposed on the plant starting from last May 1st . «Ansfisa writes that the possibility of granting the extension of the operation of the cable car under the current conditions through a planning activity can be evaluated», the mayor said in the chamber, «given that all the monitoring procedures already prescribed in the provision have returned results that do not foresee increases in initial defects”. The cable car will therefore be able to reopen with authorizations limited to thirty days and renewable from month to month.
THE STORY
It all started with a complaint from a citizen, in which problems were hypothesized about one of the four ropes, which emerged during the maintenance and overhaul carried out last September. The Ministry of Transport therefore ordered further tests, until last January 11th, the authorization was granted for the reopening of the cable car, but only until April 30th and with the obligation to replace the cables. The Municipality, after the TAR rejected an initial appeal against the provision, turned to the Council of State. Two days ago the turning point.
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