Mercury: View leaves dignitaries emotional, speechless, tearful

We do not see Sutcliffe weeping when the poor burn, live without proper access to taps, face illegal eviction, are attacked by his police and private security….

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5068702

View leaves dignitaries emotional, speechless, tearful

July 06, 2009 Edition 1

Colleen Dardagan

NOT UNLIKE the Sydney Bridge or the London Eye, the 106m arch over Durban’s R3.1 billion Moses Mabhida Stadium offers spectacular views across the city and the ocean – and, on a clear day, all the way to the Drakensberg.

On Friday, after taking the first ride in the R20 million “cable car”, or funicular mounted on the arch, local dignitaries were emotional or speechless, while some described the moment as the realisation of a dream.

Eyes filled with tears, municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe took pictures of the sweeping views while Mayor Obed Mlaba repeatedly clapped his hands above his head, before shouting: “Durban has done it! Durban has done it!”

The head of strategic projects and 2010 planning in the municipality, Julie-May Ellingson, beamed from ear to ear as she quietly surveyed the sprawling city and ocean beneath her.

The ride in the Italian-made glass funicular, which travels 2.1m a second and carries a maximum of 25 people, was smooth.

At the top, the doors clicked open to allow Mlaba to be the first to step on to the viewing platform.

“There are other views around (the world) where you can look at whole cities, but never from right on top of a football pitch,” he said.

Beat Musfeld of Garaventa, the company which supplied and installed the new funicular, said this was the first such project in the world.

“We have never built and installed one of these on a stadium. There are many in the Alps, and the biggest one, which can carry 400 people at a time, was installed in Hong Kong.”

Musfeld said the vehicle on the arch was a funicular and not a cable car.

“Cable cars hang from cables; this is a funicular, which is winch driven and travels on tracks.

“It has variable speeds, but we have set this one to its slowest, because it’s about the ride, not only the destination.”

Ellingson said the price for a ticket to the top was yet to be determined.

“We think between R60 and R90, because we want to make it affordable for everyone,” she said.

Ellingson said the funicular would be open to the public in a few months.