Mace lead Thames cable car plans for London

Construction firm Mace are set to begin work on the new cable cars that will travel across the Thames in London.

Train4TradeSkills News wrote last August that plans were being developed to link Greenwich and the O2 arena on one side of the River Thames to the Royal Victoria Docks on the other side of the river. Now the plans have been confirmed and Mace are leading the £50 million cable car project.

The £50.5 million plans involve Mace, Austria cable car experts Dopplemayr, Watson Steel, Scott Wilson, Buro Happold and Aedas. Work is expected to begin shortly and the aim is to finish before the Olympics arrives in London in 2012.

The cable cars will take five minutes to go across the Thames, between the O2 and the ExCel centre, and are expected to carry up to 2,500 passengers an hour.

The cable car project in London will be the first and only one in the UK and would follow European cities like Lisbon and Barcelona, where cable cars have been a success.

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson said about the cable car scheme: “This innovative airborne travel link will be a vital component in the ongoing renaissance of a vibrant easterly quarter of the Capital, providing a much needed river crossing. I am thrilled we are full steam ahead to start work on this project.”

What do you think of the cable car plans for London? Let us know and comment on here or on the Train4TradeSkills Facebook and Twitter pages.

If you like this, read our earlier story: London cable car scheme could generate more trades jobs

Advertisements