"Ice"ing on the cake!

Here's a question I have been wondering for a while. Anyone who lives near Lake Erie knows how bad the winter can be. One major problem is ice storms. They don't happen a lot, but when they do, they are bad. Seeing what heavy build up of ice on trees and power lines can do, is this any threat to CP's coaster's? Does CP have a way to keep ice from building up on them? I could imagine this could cause major problems for CP's taller coasters such as Mean Streak, Magnum, and soon MF.

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Vince "cpboy"Albertson
http://home.att.net/~vcalbertson/index.htm

*** This post was edited by Vince on 1/12/00. ***

Those rides put up with higher loads than a little bit of ice when they are running. Besides, the ride supports are a little stronger than wires and trees...

One thing to remember is that ice is a static load. It builds up, and just sits there. It doesn't move or vibrate, or stress the structure in unexpected directions. In addition, it's not a sudden load, it builds up gradually, and releases in the same fasion.

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Timothy A. Bretz
"Remember to pillage before you burn"
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/tabretz

Still...

I know that ice loading is a concern for broadcast towers (which are also usually considered static loads) so I imagine the same consideration must be given to coaster structure...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.