Doppelmayr decided to address a pending issue with the haul rope extending from Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort to Epcot’s International Gateway the day before Hurricane Dorian was set to make landfall in Florida.
Crews discovered that after extensive load testing on the Epcot line, the haul rope began to stretch more than desired. The only solution was to remove the haul rope from the towers and perform a re-splice.
A splice is when two ends of the haul rope are joined together to make one seamless piece. This is a very specialized and lengthy process that can only be performed by a select few experts around the world. When it was determined that the Epcot line was overstretching, those experts were once again called upon to re-splice the haul rope in order to repair the issue.
Today, crews were able to hang the haul rope back onto the towers after Hurricane Dorian had safely passed by.
This specialist would climb each tower and guide the haul rope back onto the sheaves or wheels as a crane lifted it into place.
The haul rope can now be re-calibrated and testing can once again resume. Hopefully this will not affect the opening on September 29, but if there is any delay it should only affect the Epcot line. Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Art of Animation and Pop Century Resorts look to be running without issue.
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