Portland Aerial Tram
What:
Portland’s first tram and “aerial” bridge.
Cost: About $57 million.
Opens: Late
2006 or early 2007. (The system will be tested for six weeks prior
to opening for the public.)
Purpose: Transport
passengers between the Peter Kohler Building at Oregon Health
& Science University (OHSU) on Marquam Hill and S.W. Moody
Street in the North Macadam District, just east of Interstate
5. All may ride, but the tram was built to carry OHSU employees/patients.
Length:
3,300 linear feet.
Alignment:
Rises 500 feet over Terwilliger Blvd, Barbur Boulevard, Macadam
Avenue, Interstate-5, and Lair Hill neighborhood (along Gibbs
Street).
Time traveled:
Less than three minutes.
Capacity:
When fully loaded, two cabins each carry 78 passengers plus one
attendant. This is more than a large school bus. Planners anticipate
1,500 riders per day during start up, increasing to 5,500 passenger
trips per day by 2026.
Hours
of Operation: Monday through Saturday, 16 hours a day.
Fare: $4.00 roundtrip.
Owned by:
City of Portland and OHSU. Maintenance costs shared 15% by the
City and 85% per OHSU.
How It Works:
Operates similar to a ski lift. It has two fixed cables (called
track cables), one endless loop of cable (called a haul rope),
and two passenger cabins (also called tram cars). The fixed cables
support the cabins. The haul rope is attached by means of a grip
to a carriage, which is an assembly of wheels that rolls on the
track ropes.
The haul rope is driven by an electric motor
located at the bottom of the tramway so that it pulls one tram
car down, using that tram car’s weight to help pull the
other tram car up, the two balancing each other.
Other facts:
The tram’s freestanding intermediate tower, located just
east of I-5, is 197 feet tall. It was fabricated in three sections,
with the top section lifted into place by cranes on July 5, 2006.
The original architectural plans called for a wooden intermediate
tower, but the stresses were too high for wood—made of steel,
this tower is designed to withstand 500 tons (one million pounds)
of side pull.
Architectural
Designer: Sarah Graham of the Swiss-American architectural
firm Angelli/Graham/Pfeninger/Scholl.
General Contractor:
Kiewit Pacific of Vancouver, Washington.
Cable and mechanical system:
Doppelmayr (Switzerland).
Steel fabrication:
Thompson Metal Fab, Vancouver, WA.
Other: KPFF Engineering
of Portland provided the peer review and also created the preliminary
design for a 600-foot-long pedestrian bridge opening in 2010 to
carry people across I-5 to and from the Lair Hill neighborhood.
This pedestrian bridge is being funded with federal dollars and
is not included in the cost of the tramway.
Source:
The Portland Bridge Book, 3rd edition revised and
expanded, by Sharon Wood Wortman, with Ed Wortman and photographs
by James Norman (Urban Adventure Press, 2006)
<www.bridgestories.com>
More information may be found at the Portland
Aerial Tram website: www.portlandtram.org.
