Engineering a passenger ropeway on the Cal Poly Pomona campus

Abstract

A team of undergraduate students at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, led by a faculty advisor, planned and preliminarily designed a passenger ropeway as their senior capstone project. The purpose of the ropeway was to connect the main campus, at an elevation of 765 ft (233 m), with Kellogg House and Parking Lot R, at an elevation of 940 ft (287 m). The house and lot are situated on a ledge overlooking the main campus. The ropeway was proposed as an alternative to driving or walking up and down narrow Mansion Lane to access these facilities. The selected alignment had a straight line length of 1,760 ft (536 m), with an average gradient of 10%. Kellogg House management preferred gondolas over chairs for passenger carriers, although a survey of students, faculty, staff and visitors showed equal preference. The same survey found that up to 76% of the campus community would use the ropeway. The potentially high ropeway demand would overload Mansion Lane with vehicles accessing Lot R, and a traffic control plan to advise drivers of available parking were proposed. With a fixed grip, continuous ropeway, the operating speed would would be 150 ft/min (0.75 m/sec.) Four-person gondolas spaced at 71 ft (21.6 m) would enable the ropeway to move up to 400 persons/hr. Six support towers, along with counterweight, would ensure cable sag of no more than 24 ft (7.3 m).