The article below was an April Fool’s Day story!
Cable cars look set to be added to high-tech power lines in the Burnham-On-Sea area, creating a major new tourist attraction.
Plans have just been unveiled for the new service using Hinkley Point’s T-shaped power pylons, pictured here.
The multi-million pound plans, announced today, will let users take air-conditioned cable car rides from Bridgwater, through the Huntspills, and finishing near Weston.
“We are delighted to be announcing these plans today which will bring an exciting new tourist attraction to the area while using the existing pylons we have put in place,” says a spokesman behind the scheme.
“They will give people panoramic views of the Somerset Levels and surrounding countryside.”
The T-pylons have been constructed in the Burnham-On-Sea area as part of the £900 million Hinkley Connection Project, a 57km high-voltage electricity line that will ultimately connect six million homes and businesses to low carbon energy.
High-voltage electricity is passing through the T-pylons, a newly constructed electricity substation at Sandford and 8.5km of underground cables through the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. There will be a total of 116 T-pylons along the whole 35-mile route.
The T-pylon design, the first major UK redesign since 1927, has a single pole and cross shaped arms, and is around a third shorter than traditional high-voltage pylon design with a smaller ground footprint.
The new design was selected from over 250 designs entered into an international competition run in 2011, organised by the Royal Institute of British Architects and government (the then Department of Energy and Climate Change).
The T structure is the first amendment to the traditional lattice design in nearly 100 years.
The lattice pylon was the winning entry in a 1927 pylon design competition ran by the Central Electricity Generating Board, chosen by architect Sir Reginald Blomfield.
