Construction in Area 51

I was at the park today to check out the track, and I found something quite interesting going on in Area 51... construction! And not just land clearing - there is construction equipment in there (2 cranes, bulldozers), and today they were doing several things. I actually talked to one of the construction workers, and he said that today they were putting in pilings (large metal i-beams for concrete support?). They were also planting several stakes and making measurements everywhere (new footers?). Also, it seems as though more track and supports have arrived by Mean Streak - there are now 2 giant yellow supports and more red track. I should have some pics soon.

Also saw new orange markings behind Chaos.

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"Meh."
Wicked twists: 8
Danger: Hgih Voltage!
*** This post was edited by Majin Heero 8/23/2002 4:11:02 PM ***
*** This post was edited by Majin Heero 8/23/2002 4:54:15 PM ***

And the plot thickens... It's really really thick by now....

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Tommy Penner - Variable X
Cedar Point FanBoy since 2001.

Has anyone considered the idea of no lift hill at all with no hill? Just speed....dragster? :-)

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BTS Cedar Point
http://www.btscedarpoint.tk

Has anyone considered the idea of no lift hill at all with no hill? Just speed....dragster? :-)

With the supports I've seen, there will be a hill.

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Florida may have Disneyworld and Key West,
but Ohio has Cedar Point and Put-In-Bay.
It's great to live in Ohio!

Ah yes, I also saw Dick Kinzel and some others watching the Area. Let the construction begin! Err... continue! (I guess the footers were the true beginning :) )

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"Meh."
Wicked twists: 8
Danger: Hgih Voltage!

This is too awesome.

...wouldn't that be an interesting design?

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BTS Cedar Point
http://www.btscedarpoint.tk

Keep in mind I'm not sure if theses are actual footers or anything, this is just an observation.

Today (well yesterday) they were using those I-beams which were piled straight into the ground with sheets of metal tapered around the sides to constructed huge molds. It looks like they have begun to pour cement into one of these. I cannot believe the size of these things. They are huge, Cube shaped, and my guess they are 15'X15'X10' in size.

When I first started reading what you said, I thought maybe they were constructing housing for launch equipment or the like. I then read a little more and am now confused.

My second thought was that they could possibly be some kind of enormous footers- ya know, the kind needed to support a 400ft. tower... However, it obviously can't be a footer unless they dug down first. Then again, what in the world would giant cubes of cement just sitting on the ground be used for?

Thinking this all over...

1) Footers are never poured to sit on the ground. There is almost always some sort of excavation first.

2) When a large chunck of concrete needs to be poured, they must do it in smaller stages. It'd take forever to cure...let alone the amount of heat that would generate.

Perhaps the rumors of cement being poured under Area 51 earlier this year are true. The pilings could have been forced down into that concrete to hold it to the new stuff being poured now above the surface.

Just thinking out loud :o)

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James Draeger
"Make it stop!"
"There goes the body buggy"

The construction started 2 weeks ago, when the Port-A-Potty arrived. And as someone said before, not only did it arrive, but there was a line to get in. (It might be cleaner than the regular bathrooms)

Hey James, that's what I was thinking.

The area underneath and around these things were dug up. Although it was tough to see into them ,it looked like there was a large mass of concrete they were already sitting on.

Those days in between Halloweekends is where I think they will do "big" construction.

The have lights in there as well, so they are probably planning on doing work at night.

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Florida may have Disneyworld and Key West,
but Ohio has Cedar Point and Put-In-Bay.
It's great to live in Ohio!

Now before I get a zillion flames my way, let me state that I have no idea what goes into the construction of a coaster whatsoever and I am merely reporting back what I saw over my 4 day visit(s) to CP. The walkway past Chaos and the Guessing Game that leads to PWE has been closed off. On Monday, it was open and free for all to view Area 51 but on Tues, they had blocked it off and there was some surveying equipment in there. Next up, I did get in really close (as close as I could without getting caught) and snapped some pictures of the work being done inside the fenced off area. (there was a section of the fence missing right by the Guessing Game and I just kinda meandered along side of it.) I noticed the following: there are 3 large concrete "boxes" (for lack of a better term) that are in the ground. I can only guesstimate the size of these "boxes" as 10'X 20'. (keep in mind that is a major rough guess) The interesting thing about these boxes is that two of the three are side by side and the third is behind one of them. Now I know we're not supposed to get our panties in a bunch about a "dueling" coaster, and I'm not even suggesting that because like I said, I know absolutely nothign about the construction of coasters, but it does seem kinds funny that they are patterned out like that. Almost like they are building "two projects" at once so to speak. I do have pictures to back all this up and if anyone wants them, you can email me. (if there is enough of a request for this, I'll set up a Geocities website just to put the pictures on and post a link.)

EDIT: upon reviewing video, I can't vividly recall the fourth "box" so I will for sure state that I saw 3 of them.

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1 day, 4 planes, a whole new world. 9/11/01
*** This post was edited by Joey Stewart II 8/30/2002 9:06:45 PM ***

Well if there were pits at that end then it's safe to assume that's the end of the launch area and the start of the launch will be somewhere in the neighbourhood of Troika Troika Troika.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP, Sillynonsense.com
"Let's stop saying 'don't quote me,' because if no one quotes you, you probably haven't said a thing worth saying." - Dogma, KMFDM

I just saw some other photos a day or so newer than mine and it appears that those "boxes" were forms for giant footers of some sort.
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1 day, 4 planes, a whole new world. 9/11/01

Last thing I heard, from maintence and other technical poeple, which many of them spoke the same facts to me (one even claims to have seen blueprints) ---Intamin (obviously) 453' tall, top-hat, hydraulic launch (probable 0-100+ in less than 2.5) and top speed of 115+ MPH. Hell, I'll join Joe Cool just for that!

Matt Ex- '02 WT crew
*** This post was edited by Mathew 8/31/2002 2:12:16 AM ***

It's not 453 feet tall.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP, Sillynonsense.com
"Let's stop saying 'don't quote me,' because if no one quotes you, you probably haven't said a thing worth saying." - Dogma, KMFDM

Matt- check yo' fizicuks. ;) 115, or even 120 won't make it over 453'.

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- The Darling one
The closest I'll ever get to riding a B&M Flyer is looking down while on Raptor... :(