The Duresy Island cable car service, set up by Cork County Council in 1969, has carried tens of thousands of visitors to the remote Dursey Island on the tip of the Beara peninsula in west Cork.
Despite the island's lack of pub, shop, school, post office or chapel, over 17,500 tourists made the 10-minute cablecar journey to visit it last year, and the local authority remains firmly committed to the service.
However, normal wear and tear and the rough Atlantic weather has taken a toll on the ageing machinery and, over the past 7 years, the council has worked closely with Roughan & O'Donovan to keep the cablecar operational.
In 2010, Roughan & O'Donovan undertook a deterministic and probabilistic assessment of the structure, which involved a structural, mechanical and electrical check of the entire cableway system.
Further multi-annual assessments were undertaken in 2013, 2016 and 2017 due to the island's particularly aggressive marine environment.
More recently, Roughan & O'Donovan has proposed retrofitting steelworks for the two towers and the two frames anchoring the cables at the mainland and island stations. The steelworks mainly comprise new bolted and welded connections where corrosion advancement is reaching critical levels.
Inspection and evacuation manuals have also been prepared to enable the council to maintain the highest level of safety for passengers.
