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Content
The Benasque gondola lift seems to be saved by the bell. The deadlines are getting tighter and tighter, but the City Council assures that the terms will be met. In order not to lose the European Union subsidy, some 10 million euros, at least 50% of that money must be spent before the end of 2024. And they have until March 2026 to complete the rest.
We are, therefore, in a countdown to meet that first deadline, which ends on December 31 and has just over seven months left. In this period of time the gondola lift must be put out to tender, that is to say, the company that will build it must be chosen. This will be before the summer, but in general, to order such a device it should be done not much later than February in order to have time to manufacture it.
The gondola lift from Benasque to Cerler will be launched in December 2025.
Therefore, this year it is almost impossible to see even one cabin. But in order to meet this first deadline, in which 50% of the funds must have been spent before December 31, the civil works will begin, i.e., the exit building, preparing the bases for the pylons, electrical wiring, etc.
If these works do not cover 50% of the funds, money can always be advanced to the manufacturer on account of the gondola lift.
It is quite common for some ski lifts to be built in two phases, with the second phase being when the manufacturer's or distributor's personnel arrive to install pylons, wiring, install the motor that will move the device and, in this case, hang the cabins. All this we will see from the summer of 2025.
If all goes well, according to the Benasque City Council, before this summer (for which there is a little more than a month to go) the gondola lift will have been put out to tender. And they will start working quickly in autumn. Given the height of the departure terminal, where the bulk of the civil works will be concentrated, there will be no meteorological problem to work until the last day of this first phase, which expires on December 31.
At the same time, work will be carried out on the new defense against flooding of the Ésera river, which according to INAGA poses a threat to the lower part of the urban area, where the outlet terminal will be installed. The DGA is in charge of this with its own funds through the Aragonese Water Institute.
Even so, we are talking about a project that was always much more advanced than the cable car from Candanchú to Astún (and vice versa), and in fact on more than one occasion it seemed that it was going to be executed. But there was always a lack of sufficient funding. With the money provided by the Next Generation 21 Funds from Brussels, plus those that were scraped from the project to build a road to the new ski area of Castanesa (which the municipality did not have the economic capacity to carry out), the little more than 16 million euros that the project has finally cost were achieved.
Throughout these years, from a gondola lift from Benasque to Cerler, it has gone from a connecting lift to which a small commercial area has been added at the departure terminal , a car park lot and even night lighting so that it can be put into operation at night, especially in winter when the days get shorter.
The ultimate goal of this lift is, on the one hand, to make Benasque the foot of the slopes of the Cerler ski resort, and on the other hand, to prevent people from driving up to the slopes, which causes traffic jams and CO2 emissions in the high mountains.
It remains to be seen whether, if indeed many skiers wanted to go up by gondola, if there would be enough space to park the cars in Benasque taking into account the large capacity and number of places in the ski resort of Cerler.
The Benasque gondola will leave from Benasque and will drop skiers off at the Molino car park lot in Cerler.
On the other hand, and perhaps the most important question, how much will it cost to ride the gondola; if it will be included in the Cerler ski pass and therefore Aramón will be responsible for part of its maintenance; or if guests staying in Benasque will also have free access. Or if they will finally have to pay for each person who goes up, which will undoubtedly make most of them choose to continue accessing the resort by car.
-Type: Single cable gondola lift, detachable.
-Departure height: 1.135,23 meters
-Arrival altitude: 1.504,84 meters
-Level: 370,37 meters
-Length: 2.084 meters
-Speed: 6m/s
-Travel time: 5 minutes and 47 seconds
-Transport capacity: 2,400 people/hour
-Number of cabins: 29 passenger cabins
-Night lighting
-Pillons: 15
-Manufacturer:
-Total cost: 16,1 millions
-Inauguration: December 2025
Although last year it announced that it would no longer be open for summer skiing, finally the great amount of snow that there is now, has prompted to give it one more chance, although they warn that we will have to be attentive to the snow conditions.
It seems that there is always one more step to be able to tender the new cable car that will link the town of Benasque with the ski slopes of Cerler. According to the Heraldo de Aragón, the Aragón Government Council last week approved the urgent occupation of the assets and rights of the
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