The Planpraz gondola project, with a 13 million Euro budget, is one of the biggest alpine construction projects and will be the TGV of the Chamonix Valley, transporting 3000 people an hour in a new Pomagalsi gondola. Last Thursday, the construction took over the valley, with the help of a Super Puma helicopter specially flown in from Switzerland. 37 trips back and forth later, 8 out of the 15 pylons were erected. Next Friday, they are going to start demolishing the old gondola station. Increasing the capacity of the Planpraz lift will considerably reduce the wait time both on the way up and on the way down at the beginning and end of the season when the south facing homeward piste is usually unskiable. The new gondola is not in line with the old route. Instead the new gondola will finish a lot higher, replacing the need for the two seater chairlift. The new midstation will therefore provide a better access to the pistes. Although the project is scheduled to finish early December in time for the winter, there will still be visible scars from the 1928 lift supported by 5 massive pylons. There is still no consenus on what will be done with the historical but eye-sore blocks of concrete which will take millions of Euros to take down. There is also talk of continuing the funiculaire further into Chamonix to alleviate traffic issues - but nothing has been decided.
