New Building Projects from the Compagnie du Mont Blanc
Every year, the Compagnie du Mont-Blanc invests in improving and renovating its lift installations in a continued effort to improve the level of comfort and service it offers its clients. This summer is no exception to the rule as work begins on the Brévent gondola and the Aiguille du Midi - 2 areas that will be given a complete face-lift.
At Brévent, a new gondola will be in place for Christmas 08 which will have greater comfort, greater capacity and swifter access to the skiing than before. After the changes to the Index chairlift in 2005 and the Cornu in 2006, this new gondola is the cornerstone of the renovation programme on the south-facing side of the Valley. The new panoramic cabins can be configured for summer or winter as required – 8 places seated in summer for greater comfort, 10 places standing in winter to ensure greater capacity (3000 people per hour as opposed to 1350 before). In addition, the top station will now be higher (in the vicinity of the Altitude 2000 restaurant), giving skiers direct access to the pistes and rendering the old 2-man chair redundant. At a provisionally estimated cost of 11m €, this operation will also be an opportunity to reorganise the surrounding areas, the services and the flow of passengers, both at the bottom station in Chamonix and on the Planpraz plateau.
As you can see from the photos, work is well underway on the project. Significant tree clearing had already started before the winter was over, and now the cash desk at the base has been completely demolished so that work can begin on the new building. As a result of the building works, it will not be possible to access Brévent this summer by lift, but the area will remain accessible on foot from the Flégère plateau (allow 2 hours to cross to Planpraz) or by the footpath from Chamonix if you fancy something more energetic (be aware that there is a "No Go" zone whilst work is being carried out on the cable car). Paragliders can also take off from Flegere and the top of the Index chair (conditions permitting) and the times and dates of the Flegere cable car have been extended from 7th June to 21st September.
At the Aiguille du Midi, an ambitious redevelopment project is underway resulting from the Compagnie du Mont- Blanc's desire to rebuild the base station of the famous cable car. They have cunningly managed to finance this project by selling some of the surrounding land for property development, resulting in the birth of four new construction projects due to be completed over a two year period (from autumn 07):
- an MGM tourist residence of around 50 apartments
- an hotel of about 90 rooms entrusted to the Pierre & Vacances-Latitudes group
- thirty social housing units for the ICF group
- the renovation of the cable car station which started this autumn (the heart of the original station is being preserved and the most recent part demolished). Favouring natural materials sourced locally, the 2000 m2 building will allow for improved customer service and reception and various other projects under consideration. The cost of this part of the work: 3,750 M€
The Grands Montets - Cable replacement of the Grands Montents top cable car. The work to replace the 3 load-bearing cables will be carried out before the summer season begins on 5th July.
The Mont-Blanc Tramway - Changing the tracks
This year more substantial renovation and safety work has been carried out on the tracks for a total cost of 550,000 €. Nearly 550m of rack system track have been changed, 2 new points systems and 120 m of track with rails weighing 36 Kg/m have been laid. A protective screen with a safety net to stop rock falls has also been installed. You can check out the new track for yourself when the Tramway opens to visitors on June 14th.
