By Greg Whitaker www.constructionweekonline.com
The observation deck of the Burj Khalifa has reopened after a six week hiatus – though officials remain tight-lipped about the exact nature of the fault that closed the attraction.
An employee manning the phones for the ‘At the Top’ attraction confirmed that tickets could once again be purchased from the desk in the Dubai Mall: “But not from our website, as that is currently under maintenance,” he added.
In February, the deck closed after one of the double-deck lifts screeched to an emergency stop seconds after it started to descend. Trapped sightseers climbed to safety using a ladder that had been lowered to an escape hatch some 45 minutes after the incident.
After the event, developer Emaar suggested that the fault lay was ‘technical issues with the power supply’ of the Otis lift, adding that it was working with the contractor and sub-contractors to resolve the issue. To date, however, there has been no update on exactly what went wrong and no-one from the developer was available for comment.
The elevators are the fastest in the world, with speeds of more than 10m/second. However, the pressurised design means that most passengers are barely aware of the car moving.
