Spruce Triple - Sunday River, ME

chuckstah said:

For sure. And even real early season is only weekends. But if erosion is the cause and not use, age, or stress, who knows? Both need to be replaced for safety reasons as well as consumer confidence IMO. At fault or not, Boyne's reputation for lift reliability, at least in Maine, is certainly not great at this point.

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The use of a lift is irrelevant to the constant force on the top anchor footing. The tension is always the same on the line, loaded/unloaded and moving or not. I would think Locke's top bull wheel anchor foundation had a good inspection as the lift has been modified twice since install. It was converted from counterweight to hydraulic base tension and then the midstation was installed (which likely changed the line tension in the system). Not to mention the terrain to rock contouring is quite different at the top of Locke vs the top of Spruce. I'm certain if the investigation reveals any cause for concern, Locke will be closely scrutinized/enhanced prior to the start of the season.

machski said:

The use of a lift is irrelevant to the constant force on the top anchor footing. The tension is always the same on the line, loaded/unloaded and moving or not. I would think Locke's top bull wheel anchor foundation had a good inspection as the lift has been modified twice since install. It was converted from counterweight to hydraulic base tension and then the midstation was installed (which likely changed the line tension in the system). Not to mention the terrain to rock contouring is quite different at the top of Locke vs the top of Spruce. I'm certain if the investigation reveals any cause for concern, Locke will be closely scrutinized/enhanced prior to the start of the season.

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+1
It appears that the manufacturer of this lift has nothing to do with this failure.

Here is a link with a Vimeo video that shows a few new views.Still cant quite see what that foundation detached from.
https://liftblog.com/2016/07/13/sunday-river-lift-severely-damaged-as-terminal-falls/

After looking again I can definately see discoloration on the uphill side of that concrete.Is that new rust or old,we'll see.Also,from that limited view it appears to be be drill holes in the ledge but its tough to tell.I also read that the failure resulted in the chairs being put to the ground but the pics show otherwise.Wondering whats holding the haulrope supended?Maybe the last tower perhaps?

What about the vibration caused from the lift operating at full capacity. I don't think a static lift and one operating have the same chance of a failure. Very lucky no one was on it. Also with a load on the cable, the collapse could have been more violent and caused more damage not to mention injuries.

i also don't think that an idle lift and a lift loaded to capacity has the same tension. now i know the failure happened when idle but the cause, which in my humble opinion is either rusty anchors or failure in the bedrock itself could very well had been initiated under the greater use of spruce over locke

SR just posted an update. Initial finding suspects a grout failure but more testing is planned. No decision on repair/replace as yet.
http://sundayriver.com/news

Looking at the video again and it sure looks like the separation had been happening for some time based on the discoloration of the bottom of the concrete.Stop the video at that point and see what you think.

Don't forget, the lift base terminal is capable of sliding fore and aft to account t for load and acts like a shock absorber for the lift. Line tension. Is the same though downhill load is increased when loaded. This force must be overcome by drive motor and if motor fails, the brakes and emergency stops must activate. Given a grout failure is suspected, I doubt any of the speculations here apply. This could be a failure at the chemical level.

No decision has been made because they are awaiting tests on that grout. They probably want to know how feasible it is to just paste everything back together and pretend that nothing ever happened.


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yeggous said:

No decision has been made because they are awaiting tests on that grout. They probably want to know how feasible it is to just paste everything back together and pretend that nothing ever happened.


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That's a pretty good scenario though. They're not going to fix the lift unless they're absolutely certain there's no deeper problem. Boyne won't be taking any chances.

Assuming it's a fix and not a replace, it's likely going to be operational this year. If it needs to be replaced, then there's no Spruce and a lot more people skiing the Barker and Aurora lifts.

Jully said:

That's a pretty good scenario though. They're not going to fix the lift unless they're absolutely certain there's no deeper problem. Boyne won't be taking any chances.

Assuming it's a fix and not a replace, it's likely going to be operational this year. If it needs to be replaced, then there's no Spruce and a lot more people skiing the Barker and Aurora lifts.

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There's no other lift to serve most of that terrain, right?


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thetrailboss said:

There's no other lift to serve most of that terrain, right?


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Correct, though it is not a tough or long hike uphill Sirius from Borealis/Vortex on Aurora. You only loose 2 full trails (Upper Downdraft and Gnarnia) and 2 portions (Upper Risky Business and AmEx) though you can access a decent amount off of 3 mile trail on the last 2.

My guess is repair with a new top terminal located slightly above the original in the open space between risky and AmEx. This approach would likely require a new haul rope and probably one new tower prior to the terminal.

machski said:

Correct, though it is not a tough or long hike uphill Sirius from Borealis/Vortex on Aurora. You only loose 2 full trails (Upper Downdraft and Gnarnia) and 2 portions (Upper Risky Business and AmEx) though you can access a decent amount off of 3 mile trail on the last 2.

My guess is repair with a new top terminal located slightly above the original in the open space between risky and AmEx. This approach would likely require a new haul rope and probably one new tower prior to the terminal.

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I agree and hope we'll see something like that. Though you can hike to it, not many would. It'd make that terrain killer this season, but I'd rather have the lift for the sake of the crowds.

It's going to be expensive though...

SR will buy the Rangeley double as a replacement. Cost $3M.

quick explanation: the return station was located on ledge. rather than blast/excavate a sufficiently sized hole and install a gravity foundation where resistance to overturning is met by a concrete block of suitable size, a "pinned foundation" was utilized. in this method, the ledge is cleaned of all debris by mechanical means or water jet, followed by drilling holes in the the ledge. rock anchors are installed according to the designer, then a concrete block on which the return pedestal rests is poured around the anchor bolt cluster. in vt, only mechanical-type locking anchors are allowed (i.e. split-lock or Rawl stud type). installation of anchors of rebar affixed in position by chemical means (epoxy) or grouting is not allowed.

why not? you may recall the two epoxy-type anchor failures in the boston tunnel, and a previous rebar/grout failure at gunstock. we vermonters don't like to be in the papers.

the pic shows the return terminal after failure (well, duh!). tension from the hauling rope and chairs was from the left side. the grouting failed, the terminal was pulled up and to the left and toppled over. remember this is not a gravity anchor, the mass of concrete seen here was insufficient to resist overturning. you can see the rebar cluster proud of the block. pay no attention to the decking, that's just the unload deck and lift house.

"In Maine, it’s too early to say what happened, but the Maine Board of Elevator and Tramway Safety is alerting other ski areas in the state to ensure that the lifts are properly anchored, spokesman Doug Dunbar said." Mr. Dunbar apparently is in over his head, as everyone in the business knows terminal rock anchors/grouting are not visible for inspection.

All the pins were in the same direction , having a radial pattern would have been a better design ! But seems like a crap shoot of a method, how do you know what integrity the ledge has? Old man in the mountain.....gone as well

a great question! the integrity of the outcropping is assessed by the guy operating the drill. if he feels solid and consistent resistance to the drills' progress downward, the ledge is judged acceptable. if there is a sudden drop of the bit, that means he's just passed through a seam or void of some sort. not good, and this info will be passed to the lift designer. he's basically taking a perfunctory core sample. assessment of the ledge is much more difficult when using a drilling rig, rather than a hand drill. as you can see, gravity anchors have benefits.

Pretty much what I was speculating.http://www.sundayriver.com/media-center/press-releases/spruce-peak-triple-update-7-20

reinstalling the return would be a simple matter of excavating a hole, pouring a gravity foundation and plugging the return back on it. new unload deck and lift house and zoom, all done. of course, before all were to take place the entire assembly would have to be inspected for cracks, and true-ness of the wheel. simple enough. but the elephant in the room is...................

was the drive also installed in the same manner? towers?