North Carolina State Fair officials discuss chair lifts to ease congestion
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- In just five months, the North Carolina State Fair will begin, and fair officials want to have a chair lift running as a fun way to ease congestion.
State Fair officials envision a lift that carries people from one side of the fair grounds to the other.
"Chairs of different colors on these cables, moving people around, hopefully you're seeing a lot of smiles, a lot of people waving to friends and family on the ground," said fair official Brian Long.
Long's office put out a call for proposals to see what companies come up with as a way to help move people around the crowded fair.
"We want to see what their proposals are with regard to how soon they could do something," Long said.
The idea is to create a four-leg loop around the fair's 150-acres, with one leg ready in time for this year's fair.
The deadline for bid is June 4, which makes the turnaround time for an October 15 fair start day an ambitious goal.
"We've set a fairly ambitious time table...what we don't know is if that time table, it's ambitious but is it realistic? We don't know."
Long said there's a specific code, like a building code, for these kinds of devices.
"The plans would have to go through multiple reviews, multiple agencies including the Labor Department Amusement Device and Inspection Bureau," Long said. "There would be significant testing involved once it's constructed, we want to make sure we do it right, do it safely."
The cost for riding the chair lift will be determined by a company's bid. The infrastructure would be permanent, but the cars would most likely come off when they're not in use.
