Wednesday, April 7, 2010

RIOC Wins Award From Construction Women For Tram Modernization Project As Work Proceeds, Old Parts Stored & New Uses Sought For Cabins


The Roosevelt Island Tram has been shut down and out of service for the last 5 weeks as it undergoes it's Modernization program which just won one of The Future In Progress Awards from the Professional Women In Construction. The award will be presented to Roosevelt Island Operating Corp. (RIOC) President Steve Shane today although the Tram is not scheduled to resume operation until late August/Early September 2010.

How is the Tram Modernization project proceeding? Mr. Shane reports (Item 2) on the project's status:
Tram:
A. After 4 weeks since shutdown on March 1, the construction is proceeding apace, on schedule. We are monitoring closely.
On April 2, Paul Sahner (who writes the excellent NYC Grid photoblog) passed by the Tram Station and tweeted:
The support and drag cables for the Roosevelt Island Tram have been removed from their tracks and are hanging from the middle of the towers
but before the ropes came down another person spotted a:
Man tight rope walking on the now defunct roosevelt island tram. Can you spot him?
Image from Yfrog by Lydia Leavitt

Click on the image to enlarge and you will see him.

Anyone curious about what happened to the old Roosevelt Island Tram parts? Some parts, including the yellow gears


and red rescue buckets


are being stored in a Southtown fenced construction pen and the Tram Cabins are resting comfortably


or not

in the Motorgate area.

What will become of the Tram Cabins. Nobody knows for sure yet but during the March 24 RIRA Town Hall Meeting Mr. Shane

Image of March 24 RIRA Town Hall Meeting

mentioned two possible uses for the Roosevelt Island Tram Cabins. One idea is to use at least one of the cabins as a cafe to be situated in Southpoint Park. Another possibility is to put the tram cabin on a flat bed truck


and use it to transport riders


from the new Tram to Southpoint Park


All Aboard!!

7 comments :

Anonymous said...

Mr Shane's idea to put
"the tramcabin on a flatbed truck" disregards the facts that

We should try to shift to lighter not heavier conveyances on the island roads and the bridge, and

The cabin on top of a flatbed truck introduces a big awkward
step from the ground unto the cabin
(and down again.

The new red buses are awkward enough

Anonymous said...

Previous poster doesn't seem to have a sense of humor. Do you really think this would be in anyway doable or even legal?

Anonymous said...

What a relief.

And the two mammoth trucks I saw this morning,while having breakfast at TRELLIS were a Fata Morgana (doable yes but maybe over the bridge/ramp weight limit)

Anonymous said...

Do you know if anyone has approached the NY City Transit Museum about adding one of the tram cars to the museum? The RI Tram was the first commuter aerial tramway in the country (so historic) and is famous from movies like Spider-Man. I think it would be a great addition!

Anonymous said...

Ref the two messages exchanged in the morning of the 8th (while I was away) I am glad to see Mr Shane has not lost all his sense of humor.
I presume that the Max 15 MPH sign
just before the pedestrian walkway at the southbound busstop at the plaza was also meant as a joke
BUT it materialized.

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