The Boardwalk - New for 2023

Looking back at the photo rendering I see beach chairs on that area in front of Giant Wheel? That area has always been pretty vacant as far as beach access goes.

So Tony posted a pic of the foundation for the new coaster, and I immediately wondered why it was a big slab instead of individual footers. I looked up pics for other wild mouse rides, an it looks like that's common. It also matches the mockup artwork. Not seeing any kind of infield landscaping or decoration. Kind of a weird contrast to the design of the rest of the area. Wonder if that's a limitation of the ride itself. Anyone have any insight into that?

I dont think that slab is meant to be a finish product. There are still rebars protruding probably for individual footings themselves though I may be wrong.

Probably not necessary for such a coaster to touch bedrock. Be it county fair grounds, shopping plaza parking lot, or an open field: “portable” coasters can pop up just about anywhere. Concrete slab should suffice just fine.

Every one of those that I've seen was on a big slab, which is also unsurprising because it touches the ground a lot for something relatively small. I suspect it doesn't go very deep.

Many times those portable rides have a horizontal frame that sits on the ground that provides contact points for the ride’s supports. Once that frame is in place it’s an easy build from the ground up. So even in a park setting a large, even slab makes perfect sense.
Some of the more recent wooden coasters have been built with solid concrete foundations as well, usually the more compact twisters. Valleyfair’s Renegade and California’s Great America’s Gold Striker come to mind. It seems to eliminate the need for deep footers, which seems like a good idea for places like California. On those rides I always feel like I’m riding over a huge kiddie pool instead of a nice grassy area.

I suspect it's mostly because they are building it right near the beach and the soils are almost entirely sand. Sand requires a much larger footprint to distribute the forces into the ground than other soils. If anyone remembers back to Wicked Twister being constructed those towers had very large and spread out footings as well.

The whole peninsula is sand. The GateKeeper footers aren't larger than anything else I got to see up close, but they're all fairly deep.

Isn't WindSeeker's foundation a mat foundation as well? I seem to recall many of us were surprised by that and we half expected the thing to fall over.

Isn't TTD's tower foundation essentially one large and deep mat also?

Jeff:

The whole peninsula is sand.

For sure and not unlike Florida. A friend from Lake Wales once told me “I thought top soil was something that you bought in a bag”

Shades:

Isn't WindSeeker's foundation a mat foundation as well?

BleauxJays:
Isn't TTD's tower foundation essentially one large and deep mat also?

I don't know about Windseeker, but Dragster is a big block that extends in every direction away from the tower quite a bit. I don't know how deep it is, because they stealthily poured that an entire season early, and we were left with three footers that we couldn't figure out.

You can see some GateKeeper foundations being poured here.

Some nice views of Boardwalk progress on the webcams today.

https://www.cedarpoint.com/live-video

^Okay, I just checked the cam at 7:00pm. The most impressive part of the view is that Lake Erie is so smooth and peaceful at this time. And the colors are such that you can't differentiate between the water and the sky. Absolutely beautiful.

Oh and the building progress is nice, wondering what goes in the tower that is higher than the rest of the structure. Good place for a 4th webcam/beachcam.

Im surprised theres not more fanfare in here ..

From what I remember this forum has been clamoring for a boardwalk for YEARS as a park expansion.

It increases the odds for that 500ft launched looping B&M flyer aquatrax hybrid over lake erie 🤣

I’m super excited for this addition! The beach at CP is truly beautiful. Perhaps the most beautiful on the shallowest Great Lake. And tragically, I’m rarely on it. I’m very much looking forward to changing that. Even better with good eats and drinks and a balcony’s view.

There was a lot of fanfare (and still is).

There just isn't really much more to fare about as a fan right now, as it's just a construction site, and everyone knows the end result.

I think people were excited about the (unlikely) idea of a boardwalk out over the beach and lake. I'm optimistic about the wild mouse, pavilion, and overall theming, but the naming is weird. Aside from the lack of actual boards, is the path outside the fence still the boardwalk? Just the new section inside the park? both?

I think they picked one of the least exciting coasters possible for this renovation of that area. It tempers my enthusiasm greatly for it. Also, the restaurant should have been, in my opinion, a signature sit down venue in the style of the Choclatier at Hershey. Another cafeteria style building with little or no indoor climate controlled seating seems like an underutilized space to me, given it's location, size and supposed grandeur.

Unless I missed it, I don't recall them giving any specifics on the restaurant aside from confirming there will be one. So hopefully, your vision of signature sit-down happens as that's my hope as well. It's going to be a rather large building so perhaps it will have both a quick service and sit-down.