Some of the Iram employees are not reassured when they board the cable car. Despite the improvements made and the double validation obtained, some people have reservations, which go as far as refusing to board.
Proof of this distrust, the CFTC and FO unions of the research institute filed a strike notice on October 8. Employees are called to disengage when they have to take the cable car and the wind exceeds 100 km/h on the Bure plateau, or a certain speed on the ski lift route (76 km/h at the P3 pylon, for example). example).
Among the demands, “the effective installation of an anemometer” at the P4 pylon (the highest). Or the same system as on the other pylons, where a device measures the speed of the wind: when it is strong, the cable car automatically slows down; when it exceeds the critical threshold, no vehicle leaves.
Demands soon to be satisfied?
The reluctance is “understandable”, “given the painful history associated with various past events”, recognizes Iram. A reference to the 2016 incident and the 1999 disaster, in which 20 people died.
Asked by Le Dauphiné Libéré, director Karl Schuster recalls the double approval of the machine by the State and the TÜV. He underlines that the Seeti company, “solely responsible for decisions relating to operation”, “benefits from extensive experience and has demonstrated, for eight years, faultless reliability”.
But management is not turning a deaf ear. She has decided to adopt “certain additional measures, although not obligatory”, announces Karl Schuster. The P4 anemometer will see the light of day. And a European expert body will create “a recommendation on wind management, to the extent that the site is frequently exposed”.
The management of Iram thinks that it is the cable car itself which “should end up reassuring people”. As Bertrand Gautier, head of Noema, says, “the aim of the game is for it to be a means of transport like any other”.