- July 14th, 2009, 2:53 am
#30384
First off, let me say while I don't believe the whole 320ft. (Sky Tower), 90 degree deal there is no reason for people to jump on this guy. As of right now, NO ONE that is making guesses about this ride has anymore information than that dude. So while it looks to be a standard B&M hyper, who is anyone else to say that it is not? And if you know for sure what it is, why are you posting at all considering you would be violating any NDA that the park or construction company would have? Next, why wouldn't B&M put a 90 degree drop on a hyper? As much as you are shooting down this guy for what he said (Mr. lazor in particular for this point), now you are talking as if you KNOW what B&M is going to do on all their rides. Do you work for them? If you do, I apologize, but if you don't, then your claim that they would 'leave that for the divers' has about as much credibility as this being a 90 degree drop hyper coaster. It's exactly like Jonathan said: "Funny how EVERYBODY has valid information, yet none of it is ever the same." Anyone that does know something ain't saying a F***ing word about the bit they do know, and everything else we hear is as valid as the next rumor/"fact".For instance, I have been indulged on certain facts about this ride, but I would never, EVER give any of that info away for a multitude of reasons. Not to mention I kinda like the idea of having a 300+ft. hyper with a 90 degree drop - I will go one step further and say it isn't a hyper - it's the first 500ft. tall coaster period. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Getting back to the more pressing topic at hand (the 4 footers connected), I would say that it is nothing to second guess compared to other hypers (namely Diamondback). Let me preface this with the fact that I am not a structural engineer, but I have done foundation work in a couple areas of the country that MAY be reminiscent of this. First off, I do know for fact (because of the work I have done) that there is more than one way to pour a footer, especially when it comes to the earth you are pouring into/onto. From what I can tell, everyone is basing this off of the Diamondback construction photo of the same 4 footers. I do know in the Midwest (and I don't know if Cincy is the same way) that they have a lot of topsoil. That's why places like Indiana and Illinois have to have either have a basement or pylons driven as deep as a basement into the ground for support. Here, we don't have to do that because the clay soil that is more than abundant around Charlotte is a thick layer of fairly dense soil. What I am getting at here is that if KI needed to drill 4 footers on topsoil they would have had to dig at least 10 to 20ft. deep. Why do that for more area than just the 4 footers? It would have been pointless to add extra concrete in between. With our clay soil, you don't have to dig but maybe 5 to 10ft. deep, if that. But to strengthen all of the footers since you don't have the depth of 10 or 20ft. (and keep them from moving independently across the top of the clay) you pour a concrete slab that connects all four. Again, this is just educated guessing based on what I do know about foundation work, but this is the most logical explanation for the slab as apposed to the 4 independent pylons.
