Construction Weather Factor?

How does putting TTD (or any coaster for that matter) during the winter months effect the actual building of the ride? Since I assume steel expands and contracts with temperature, do all the nuts and bolts have to be tightened in the spring and then the summer? Or when it is built is there some "give" to structure to compensate for changes in temperature?
Rideman???
I have NO idea why I thought of this.....maybe all this snow is getting to me-blech! =(

Jo
2000/2002 Raptor Crew
Lifetime Raptor flights: 708 :)
Who's Paint horse now has "CP" shaved on his hip :)
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It's all about getting around the barrels, or over the fences, right leads, no faults, fastest time and looking pretty when done. What's so hard about that? :)

IMO, the nuts/bolts would have to be loosened in the spring/summer because metal (or any material for that matter) expands with increased temperature. On a side note, wouldn't temperature affect the height/ length of coasters, even if it was only fractions of an inch?

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life without danger is a waste of oxygen

I think the rate at which steel contracts and expands is quite minimal with respect to the sizes of these rides.

If I remember my high school physics class right, I think for every mile of railroad track, they expand something in the lines of maybe 2 feet when warmed from the winter. They don't have to go around redoing railroad ties each year from it, so I don't think it'd affect the rides.

But I'd also imagine at the same time that checking the tightness of bolts is a pre-season activity that takes place to ensure the rides are safe to operate.

As for during construction, that's more of the weather holding up construction. The wind, for example, would prevent raising pieces by crane... it may also blow the tarps off things... I know they have some areas covered and heated, and heavy snowfall may affect this. Also, if you're freezing, you're not going to work very well, and that's not a good thing, especially with this type of an engineering project.

So some of that's just being comfortable while working, while some is the ability to move things around in consideration to the weather, and some is just plain safety.

Aaron

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17 straight years of real thrills and counting...

TekGuy said: they expand something in the lines of maybe 2 feet when warmed from the winter

For real?? That sounds like a lot, 2 ft/mile.

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Take life with a grain of salt. . .unless of course you have high blood pressure -- then you may want to take life with a crystal of sodium-free salt substitute.

2 feet per mile is .03%. That really isn't that much. Over the height of TTD, it's going to expand less than 2 inches if you follow the same ratio. I would certainly expect that bolt torque checks are part of the routine maintenance of the ride.

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No Sig Required

Yeah but still. . .I just didn't think that steel expanded/contracted that much. But then again, I am not a steelophile.

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Take life with a grain of salt. . .unless of course you have high blood pressure -- then you may want to take life with a crystal of sodium-free salt substitute.