Fortis was contracted in the united states to complete a head rope replacement and skip replacement in a shaft during a long wall shutdown. Phase one of this project was to remove the four existing head ropes from their ground mounted hoist. This consisted of chairing the three balance ropes at the collar level on surface as well as banking the existing skip in the headframe. A surface winch was used to lower the old ropes underground. A reeling machine was set up at the mining level to simultaneously reel the ropes up onto empty reels. Once all old ropes were removed from the shaft, the upper tails were removed from around the ground mounted hoist. Phase two was to remove the existing skip from the headframe. The surface winch along with a mobile crane were used to remove the skip from the headframe. The new skip was installed using the same method as removal. Phase three consisted of the installation of the four new head ropes. These ropes were raised up from underground using the surface winch to hoist them up. Once the new head ropes were installed, the balance ropes were reconnected, and the new skip was made operational. The project was completed within the scheduled shutdown period.
