Two new gondola lifts are currently being built at Méribel, France in the heart of the 3 Valleys, ready to open for the coming winter 2012-13.
By the main Méribel village, work on a new Saulire gondola in continuing. Section two of the lift was built last year and now section one is being replaced this summer.
The completed new lift will make the vertical ascent of more than 1250 metres in 12 minutes, cutting the previous journey time by nearly half.
Up the slopes in Mottaret, Méribel's purpose-built off-shoot, a new gondola at Plattières will replace a three decade old lift on the same route.
The new lift will be a single stage rather than the old two-stage lift and will dramatically cut journey times by more than 60% from more than 20 minutes to make the ascent, to less than ten minutes with the new lift. Capacity on the route will also increase by 40%. The third stage of the gondola will remain as before.
Méribel's lift company has invested nearly 40 million Euros in the two new lift systems.