***Official Footer Pouring Thread***

[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.

[JamminJ]

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?

[carowindsman6654]

In the last picture of Diamondback's construction, you'll see one footer being constructed with wood around it. That's probably what they'll do at Carowinds especially if they are square footers. If not, then go with Coaster Punk's assessment.

[KenB]

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.

Dave is going to be very upset about this.

[JamminJ]

Yes I actually rode it with him. We were both like "WTF?"

[Newton's Engineer]

The long cylindrical re-bar bundles and augered holes at Carowinds just looked a little atypical to me. I was hoping someone with local civil engineering knowledge might weigh in with an opinion. The rebar for Diamondback was a more typical shallow, broad-base formation suited for compressive loads. Shallow and wide is good for vertical loading. In other words- up and down movements of the load. Think bunny hops or camelbacks.



Longer, deeper and narrow rebar like we are seeing is better for horizontal loading. They are generally made to flex in the horizontal direction. Think hammerheads, helices, and overbanked turns.



Of course all of this is dependent on local soil conditions, the part of the track that is being constructed and local hydrodynamics. Does anyone here know what the typical building standard is for the area?

[lily the walrus]

The long cylindrical re-bar bundles and augered holes at Carowinds just looked a little atypical to me. I was hoping someone with local civil engineering knowledge might weigh in with an opinion. The rebar for Diamondback was a more typical shallow, broad-base formation suited for compressive loads. Shallow and wide is good for vertical loading. In other words- up and down movements of the load. Think bunny hops or camelbacks.

Longer, deeper and narrow rebar like we are seeing is better for horizontal loading. They are generally made to flex in the horizontal direction. Think hammerheads, helices, and overbanked turns.

Of course all of this is dependent on local soil conditions, the part of the track that is being constructed and local hydrodynamics. Does anyone here know what the typical building standard is for the area?

so what are you thinking--does this indicate a coaster other than B&M hyper to you? or do you think these different building elements have more to do with the actual, um, dirt?

and regarding the jumbo footer- this is my first foray into coaster construction observation, but the first thing I thought when I saw the pic of the footer was "holy c$@#! that sure is a big footer!" so...do you all agree that this is a larger-than-expected footer? and if so, is that significant? (I did read the posts about this earlier, just wondering about other folks' thoughts as well)

anyhow, thanks to everyone for the photos. at last, this is getting really interesting.

[Top Gun68]

I went to the park today(it poured, rode Drop Tower atleats 20 times, and Nighthawk was a walk on!)I spoke with someone today who gave me major information on the upcoming roller coaster. It is in fact a B&M Hyper, it is going to be red, it is going to be as tall as the Sky Tower, it will have a 90 degree drop, and it will go 90 mph. Please don't ask me who or where I got this information from, just trust me when I say it's valid.

[Jonathan]

Funny how EVERYBODY has valid information, yet none of it is ever the same.

[lazor 22]

I doubt B&M would do a gig, especially in a park that hasn't even broken the 150 foot barrier. B&M wouldn't put a vertical drop on a hyper, they leave that for the divers.

[FSUNolez06]

I went to the park today(it poured, rode Drop Tower atleats 20 times, and Nighthawk was a walk on!)I spoke with someone today who gave me major information on the upcoming roller coaster. It is in fact a B&M Hyper, it is going to be red, it is going to be as tall as the Sky Tower, it will have a 90 degree drop, and it will go 90 mph. Please don't ask me who or where I got this information from, just trust me when I say it's valid.

IP check, please. I bet this is the same guy who took a picture of a light post footer.