High-capacity panoramic lifts

High-capacity panoramic lifts keeping the city on the move

The capital of Cantabria, Santander is a beautiful city on the north coast of Spain, one of whose most attractive features is its particularly hilly terrain. This creates a striking urban landscape but can sometimes make movement within the city much more difficult than it appears at first sight. Two neighbouring districts of Santander, up until now effectively cut off from each other by their difference in altitude and the railway lines running between them, have finally been brought together by the building of an elevated walkway served by two lift systems specially designed, manufactured and installed by IMEM Lifts.

A total of four lifts were designed and installed to meet the demands of this innovative and important urban project. Two of them – machine-roomless, with a 1000-kg load capacity, a speed of 1.6 metres/second and a 19-metre travel distance – provide access to the 120-metre-long elevated walkway over the railway lines which leads to a tower with two panoramic lifts – also machine-roomless and with a 1600-kg load capacity and a speed of 1.6 metres/second – which travel 30 metres up to deliver their passengers to the newly-created plaza high above.
The two outdoor panoramic lifts offer spectacular views over the city and the Bay of Santander as they travel up and down the tower between the two stops. The spacious lift cars, each with room for up to 21 passengers, are equipped with air conditioning and have a special stainless-steel finish. The changeable climate so typical of Santander has of course been fully taken account of in the design of these two panoramic lifts, given their exposure to the elements: in both cases the entire mechanical system – including the roping and guide rails – is galvanised and weatherproofed. And there are specially designed conduits for the travelling cables to protect them and hide them from view, giving the whole system a clean and elegant outline.
One particularly unusual feature of the two panoramic lifts is their special IMEM-designed car-to-car passenger rescue system. Given that there are only two stops and the tower does not incorporate an emergency staircase running up its full height of 30 metres, IMEM came up with a car-to-car solution, where the lift car which has come to a halt with passengers inside, for whatever reason, is safely immobilised, the other car is brought alongside and the passengers can be evacuated from one to the other through emergency doors.
The effectiveness of this evacuation option was of the many aspects of IMEM’s design proposals which made them stand out from the competition and led to IMEM being awarded the contract to design, manufacture and install these made-to-measure lifts for a major town planning project of such importance to the city of Santander.
The final result has proved to be highly satisfactory, completely fulfilling the specifications, the completion schedule and the price agreed. As regards the schedule, it is worth pointing out that from when the contract was signed, the entire project was completed, including the design and manufacture of the entire lift system, in only 20 weeks.