[chunkyskunk]

Just thought I would do a little Time lapse

Mod edit: Thanks, for trying? We already have one here though.


Also why are they drilling way over here?

It looks like to me that this is going to be a footer for a support for the upper part of the lift hill. If you take photos from the skytower and the photo above, then look at my diagram I have attached (if I did it right) then it is a straight shot and correct direction for the lift hill. This is also assuming that the U shaped 4 hole thingy is the bottom/start of the lift hill as diagramed a couple of pages ago which is seems that we all agree is the start of the lift hill from what I can tell from past posts. Based on that diagram, this photo above would line up as part of the lift hill. I like that the drop will not go straight down but will turn to the right. Or at least the second hill will turn to the right if not the main hill.

Possible lift hill
cw2010.jpg (362.22 KiB) Viewed 5628 times

[b&mcoaster1095]

^ It's so the speed of the train doesn't put too much tension on the chain. They somehow figured a way around this and it is not necessary anymore.

[chunkyskunk]

I think the reason AC and RB have pre-drops was to spread out the weight. If you look at the new ones they have bigger crests where as the old ones have small tight crests.

Here is what Wiki has to say about it:
One feature of Bolliger and Mabillard coasters that is common throughout their product line is an element known as a "pre-drop" (which is known in the industry as a "Kicker"). This is a short drop after the top of the lift hill and before the start of the first drop, designed to reduce tension on the lift chain. The flat section between the pre-drop and the first drop serves as a shelf to carry the weight of the train, reducing related stresses on the chain. By comparison, on most coasters without a pre-drop, the weight of the train as it begins its descent tends to pull on the lift chain, as the latter half of the train is still being lifted by the chain at this point. More recently, the pre-drop is only used on coasters with curved drops, whereas coaster with straight drops, such as Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia and The Time Machine at Freestyle Music Park do not have pre-drops.

[Newton's Engineer]

I don't know who to thank specifically so I will put out a general thank you to whomever thought an attitude adjustment was in order. It is noticed and appreciated.

[carowindsman6654]

^ It's so the speed of the train doesn't put too much tension on the chain. They somehow figured a way around this and it is not necessary anymore.

Oh I hadn't realized that's why coasters did that. I just thought it was a design element to make the coaster more enjoyable for the guests. Very interesting.

[Mountain3307]

Just adding my .02 here...


went to the park this afternoon with the family... I noticed a couple things of interest..

First was the Hendrick construction sign at the gate by the TR turnaround. That south parking lot is awfully clean.. Looks like they are getting it ready for "parts"

I'm curious if the ride will return by the picnic pavilion, swing around to the area where the old log ride station was and go thru the brakes there.. THat drill was out on that paved area behind the gift shop last week..

we'll know soon enough..

[chargercrazy]

Mods, thanks for the thread cleanup. Keep those updates coming. I'm sure the rain slowed work a bit last week.

[Jay]

Well this post is going to seem very anticlimactic after two days of a closed thread but whatever here it goes.

We have.. FOOTER!


Yes one.. just one.. very large.. footer.


We also have rebar.


Here are drainage ditches, NOT FOOTERS.


A few of these trees may be coming down as well.


Back on the ground it is quite a different scene than when I was here 6 weeks ago.


The hill is no more.


The hi-res of this will show markers everywhere. (Click for hi-res)


The footer is completely below ground level and is impossible to see anywhere but the Skytower.


Veering a bit off topic I got a chance to do new Dora.


The soundtrack is completely different than before, and the "We did it" song is no more.


This is still a grass nothing, but markers are plentiful.


Yep.


Finally made it this far without getting yelled at.


Markers on the backside of the Nick Central stage.


Snooping around more I got some closeups of the rebar already in the ground.



Rebar on the ground?


Rebar ON the ground.


Its like a Home Depot exploded in here.


Drill Baby Drill.


Carowinds is smart and leaves their crates where no one can just peek over the fence and see labels.


More crap.


This Red Box does not in fact contain dvds. (BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO)


The ant hills that were here a few weeks ago seemed to have been flattened as if it were done by a 6 year olds shoe.


It's quite long.



The end?


I also updated my google maps picture.


As always if anyone wishes to see my over-obsession with taking dirt photos, as well as high resolution of the dirt above, you may view the rest of this year's gallery on flickr.

[carowindsman6654]

Great pics JamminJ. Looking at your pics, I didn't even notice this structure until now: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamminj/37 ... 362016078/ Hopefully they save it and have the coaster go through it.

[charlotteguy02]

From looking at Jay's newest photos (and using one of those said photos, thanks Jay ) Here is what I think we will end up with covering the dirt area.


Red: Track with lifthill over Dora and/or trees, return bunny hops from the paved pavilion area.
Blue: Shed and transfer track
Black: Station
Yellow: Judging from the drainage surrounding a lower lying area and the giant boulders that still sit off just below the teal box, I think this will be a pond with fountain.
Teal and White: This is a little less unclear to me, as opposed to the footers for the transfer track, but I figure one of the two will be the entrance/queue and the other the exit/souvenir shop/on ride photo. In between will be paved plaza area with entry to the souvenir shop.

[goldsteh]

That is one big footer. Does anyone other than me think we are maybe getting a launch start? Why else would we have such a large footer at what would be the possibly the start of the ride and the bottom of the hill? Check out the pictures of Diamondback and Bohemeth. Neither has such large footers at the bottom of the lift hill. Remember about a month ago I called this launch start for a mega coaster. Opinions???

[carowindsman6654]

That is one big footer. Does anyone other than me think we are maybe getting a launch start? Why else would we have such a large footer at what would be the possibly the start of the ride and the bottom of the hill? Check out the pictures of Diamondback and Bohemeth. Neither has such large footers at the bottom of the lift hill. Remember about a month ago I called this launch start for a mega coaster. Opinions???

It's possible. Diamondback has four footers at the start of their lift hill, but they aren't connected like this one is with concrete.

[Jay]

If you look at the extreme bottom right corner of this picture you can see Behemoth has one big footer.. but it is also over water. So this post adds no information.

[Newton's Engineer]

Comparing the footers to Diamondback.

I am a little curious about the footer construction and hopefully someone with some construction field experience can weigh in here. I saw the vertical drilling rig and the large round vertical rebar sections, but I haven't seen any forms. Normally I would expect to see something such as sonotube to form the round footers. Leaving the round footers like the ones from Diamondback.



I have heard of people pouring unformed footers in hard clay soils (so called Carolina Red Clay Forms) so maybe that is what they are doing. Or did they possibly use that black tubing that was seen in earlier photos?

As for the large U-shaped footer we have seen, It doesn't look like they opened a large enough hole to form it below ground. Maybe they are only going to form it above ground when they set the bolts like the square one in the background of this photo.



This next one is a pretty good overview of the all the different footer types used in the construction of Diamondback. All pics were taken during the VIP construction tour. I apologize if they have been posted before, I am just posting the ones from Diamondback for comparison to what they are doing here.



I just don't understand why I am not seeing any forms or sonotube on our site.

[Coaster Punk]

Hmmmmmm Maybe there is some kind of new way they are constructing coasters?