Cable car becomes dislodged, crashes onto construction site

WORK on Sentosa’s new intra-island cableway was suspended yesterday after an empty cable car dislodged and crashed onto a construction site on Sunday.

No one was hurt in the incident but an employee riding in a car behind was suspended in mid-air for three hours before he was moved to safety.

Sentosa Development Corpora­tion (SDC) is building the cableway to transport visitors around the island.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) issued a directive yesterday to cease all installation works for cable lines. Work can resume only after BCA “is satisfied that all necessary rectification and mitigation measures have been implemented”, it said.

A spokesman for SDC said the contractor, Doppelmayr Seilbahnen GmbH, is assisting BCA in its investigations.

Calls made to the Austrian ropeway company yesterday were unsuccessful.

As an additional measure, Doppelmayr must now hire engineers registered with the Professional Engineers Board, Singapore to make sure that the supporting tower is stable.

These third-party engineers will also submit suggestions to BCA on how to prevent another mishap. Throughout the process, Doppelmayr is expected to work with them on securing the site. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network