Up From The Sea

Jun 1, 2019|Product Spotlight|Elevator World

Elevator World
Jun 1, 2019

The beach area before completion of the promenade

Thyssenkrupp escalators improve beach access at Canary Islands resort area.

The municipal government of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, seeking to bridge a gap on the city’s seafront promenade, Paseo de Las Canteras — a broad, paved walkway along Playa de las Canteras (Las Canteras Beach) — turned to thyssenkrupp Elevadores, SLU, to install four escalators in an area of demanding environmental conditions.

La Cicer is an emblematic building on Las Canteras Beach, a shoreline in Las Palmas, the capital of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands. In 1928, a power plant was opened in La Cicer on a 16,000-m2 plot on the sea edge. In the latter part of the 1960s, the power plant began cooling its turbines with sea water, which was recycled back to the sea. The site of the warm water outfall became a popular bathing spot. The electric facility changed ownership in 1970, and its use as a power plant was gradually phased out, but the beach remained popular with local residents and tourists.

To improve the experience for visitors, the Las Palmas government undertook construction of the Paseo de Las Canteras seafront promenade in the 1990s. Upon its opening, it was considered a great achievement for the city. The 3.1-km-long promenade connects La Puntilla Beach with the El Rincón area of Las Palmas. The last part of the promenade to be completed is the stretch where La Cicer is located.

The city had opened a sports center at the La Cicer plot and wanted to reconfigure the remaining space along the seafront at the level of the Paseo de las Canteras and the beach below. The simultaneous demolition of some of the existing buildings at the site was undertaken during construction of the sports building.

The city wished to improve pedestrian access to the beach, which lies below the promenade. thyssenkrupp Elevadores was contracted for the job with the understanding that the proposal had to achieve a double objective: to give continuity to the Paseo and accomplish a functional passage for the city/sea meeting surface this area deserved.

The front of the sports facility was at a lower level than the Paseo, around 6 m, while the level of the Paseo facing Pizarro street is about 8 m and, at the other end, the connection with California Street, about 10 m. This project aimed to connect the two sections of the promenade as smoothly as possible, in addition to achieving a large opening to the sea in front of the building at the lower level, creating a large, square cross-section to connect the space in front of the building with the one on the beach.

At the end of California Street, a layout of escalators was installed to augment the two flights of stairs that start from the two different levels of the square. Given its location on the walkway next to the sea, the technical specifications of the stairs were very demanding to ensure good performance in a highly corrosive saline environment.

The project comprises the supply, installation and commissioning of two Tugela escalators accessing a height of 1.5 m, and another two accessing 3.54 m, manufactured by thyssenkrupp Norte. The technical specifications of the project contemplated the demanding conditions to which the mechanical corridors were to be exposed and, thus, included:

Sea weather resistance.
Stainless-steel anticorrosion AISI 316 components
An energy-saving system with automatic start by radar and frequency variator
LED lighting under the handrail
User-detection system via photocells inserted along the entire base that allows remote start and stop
A programmable logic controller with remote monitoring and remote-control system using the latest-generation TKNview system, which allows control and monitoring of the escalators through a PC, tablet or mobile phone.

The main contractor on the project was Canary Islands construction company Satocan, and architectural services were provided by TDA Arquitectura y Urbanism 2002 SLP of Barcelona.

The flexibility and short delivery times of thyssenkrupp Norte and the experience and knowledge of the project and stair assembly team of thyssenkrupp Elevadores made this project a success, fulfilling the client’s expectations. The project was completed in September 2018.

Project Team

The project team was composed of Luis Miguel García Cuenca (project/assembly manager) and Antonio Cabezos Magariño (key account manager).

Luis Miguel García Cuenca and Antonio Cabezos Magariño

Luis Miguel García Cuenca is a project manager for thyssenkrupp Elevadores Spain. He holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and has more than 12 years of experience at thyssenkrupp, in various positions related to the execution of projects, both in the assembly area and as project manager. He has worked on escalator installations and rolling corridors in such projects as the installation of the corridors of the Port Authority of Bahía de Algeciras and the Port of Melilla, both in Spain, and the airport of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands. He has extensive international experience as project and assembly manager in Dubai and, in recent years, as technical project manager in Morocco.

Antonio Cabezos Magariño is a key account manager for thyssenkrupp Elevadores, Spain. He holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and has more than 20 years of experience with thyssenkrupp in various positions related to customer management, mainly in the commercial area as head of sales. Among the client accounts he has managed are the Spanish municipalities of Bilbao, Vigo, San Sebastian and Santander, and large construction companies, including Dragados, Ferrovial, Sacyr and OHL. He has managed large projects in urban accessibility and infrastructure for Metro de Madrid, Bilbao Metro and Madrid-Barajas Airports.