A 40-Year-Old Chairlift Gets a Modern Successor: Merano 2000 Breaks Ground on the New Kesselberg Cable Car

High above Merano, on the plateau overlooking the Adige Valley in Italy's South Tyrol, construction crews began work on Aug. 24 on what the resort is calling one of the most significant infrastructure projects in its recent history: a new cable car replacing the aging Kesselberg chairlift. Merano 2000's operating company says the new lift will be ready in time for the 2027-28 winter season.

The Kesselberg lift, tucked in the rear section of the ski and hiking area near the Sarn Valley, is currently served by a fixed-grip, three-person chairlift built by Doppelmayr — by most accounts the oldest lift installation still running at Merano 2000, at roughly 40 years old. It is being replaced by a modern gondola with 39 cabins running along a 1,735-metre line, cutting the ride time to about five minutes at a line speed of 6 metres per second and a carrying capacity of 2,000 people per hour. Branding associated with the project points to Leitner Ropeways as the system's manufacturer.

Built for All Four Seasons

What distinguishes the new installation from the chairlift it replaces is less about speed than about year-round usefulness. In winter, resort operators say the gondola will smooth out connections between different parts of the ski area, a role the current chairlift — like most fixed-grip chairs — cannot easily play for non-skiers or for less confident visitors. In summer, when the existing chairlift sits largely idle, the new cabins will give hikers and casual mountain visitors comfortable, weatherproof access to the Kesselberg plateau, opening up a part of the mountain that has largely been the preserve of summer skiers willing to ride an open chair.

That shift reflects a broader strategy already visible elsewhere in the resort. Merano 2000's flagship cable car from the valley floor at Naif, along with more recent replacements such as the Wallpach chairlift, have both moved in the same direction: away from older, weather-exposed, single-season lifts and toward enclosed, higher-capacity systems designed to serve skiers and hikers alike. Resort president Andreas Zanier has previously framed the broader lift-replacement push around widening who the mountain works for, arguing that the aim is for visitors of every age and ability to be able to move freely around the recreation area.

No New Clearing Required

Notably, the new Kesselberg line will follow the same route as the current chairlift, meaning the project does not require clearing additional trees along the corridor — a detail resort officials highlighted when the plan was first presented, and one that has taken on some significance locally given periodic public debate in Merano over the environmental footprint of ski-lift construction. The replacement is also reportedly being bundled with a wider sustainability package for the resort's lift network, though further details of that package have not yet been made public pending approval by the operating company's board.

Part of a Broader Rebuild

The Kesselberg project fits into a longer-running modernization effort at Merano 2000, which has steadily replaced its oldest lifts over the past two decades — including the 2010 rebuild of the valley cable car from Naif, itself an award-winning design by architect Roland Baldi that cut the journey from the city to the plateau to roughly six minutes. With Kesselberg's chairlift now marked for replacement, the resort will have phased out most of its original 1980s-era chair and drag lifts in favor of enclosed, higher-capacity systems, part of a wider trend across South Tyrol's ski areas — also seen in ongoing lift projects at nearby resorts such as Schöneben-Haideralm and Alpe di Mera — as operators compete to extend their usefulness beyond the traditional winter season alone.

Financing details, including the total cost of the Kesselberg project, had not been disclosed as of the start of construction. The resort has said it will provide further updates on the lift's progress as work continues toward the targeted 2027-28 opening.

Merano 2000 sits above the city of Merano in South Tyrol, Italy, and operates as a joint winter and summer destination, with skiing, hiking, mountain biking and an alpine slide among its main attractions.