Top Thrill Dragster 2022 Status

Heck, let's make Dragster into the world's first enclosed stratocoaster and retheme it to Disaster Transport: The Revenge while we're at it. No need to cover up the queue and midway and bleachers and employee areas and lagoon when you can just cover up the ride instead.

This just made me think of another question. As a matter of safety what is the nominal area that the ride is moving fast enough to be a serious concern versus slow enough to be considered "safer" (in relation to the high speed areas such as where this occurred?

I have no idea what that means but I do know that it’s possible to be killed in a car that crashes at 10mph.

True, no speed is absolutely safe, but there has to be some metric that they use where the risk vs proximity is an acceptable factor (eg in the station). I'm curious outside of the platforms what that area is. Or is it only the platforms. If it's only the platforms what would the safety envelope need to be for the new "hazard" or "restricted" areas.

I guess the simplest way to ask this, how is the possible new queue and midway locations safer than the current ones. If the goal is safety at all costs.

I'm willing to guess that along the course of the investigation, the probable trajectories for the part in question have probably been modeled ad nauseum, to the point that theoretically there should be a pretty good idea of both where on the ride is the most vulnerable and also which parts of the queue/midway/etc. would be at risk.

I'm thinking of it somewhere between the engine hazard cones on airport ramps/aprons and the most probable path modeling they do for hurricane trajectories. Also, "at all costs" is kind of impossible to enforce persay, and really, one would think there's got to be a certain degree of "good enough" at play.

For example, let's assume they relocated or covered the areas that are the most vulnerable to flying debris 99.7% of the time. Will that protect against the 0.03% of events that fall outside the standard deviations? It's hard to say, that hypothetical rules-breaking piece could just as easily go flying into the lagoon with nobody the wiser, but then your swiss cheese model gets back to "can we eliminate what caused the loose part in the first place" versus just assuming that it's going to fall off again and trying to mitigate the effects.

Very good points, building off of that then I would imagine the most prudent course of action if feasible would be a balance between mitigation (moving the 99.7% risk areas away) and prevention (implementing fixes and inspections on that part and similar items). Between the two even if there still is a percentage of risk in each solution individually together they likely approach zero when both are accounted for.

I'm definitely curious to see how this moves forward.

Allowing people to watch the launch and stand next to the launch seems just as risky as having the queue next to the brake run.

When Kingda Ka was built one of the things I thought was noticeably different and inferior was the lack of audience “interaction”. The good people of New Jersey were deprived of the thrill of being right up close to the launch and being able to walk the length. Now look.
(I don’t know how the queue for the drop tower fits into the scene)

Corrugated sheet metal box. Even when the gondolas are back in the station there are steel screens that fold down over the gondolas to prevent anything from coming down onto riders and bystanders. And the ride has to alternate operations with King Da ka.

it’s a pretty stark difference compared to the Snake River Excursions area, which was still completely open.

Just because it's fun to stir a pot; there are pics from today at the park with two individuals wearing denim examining part of the launch section of the track.

Dun Dun Duuuuuuuuuuunnnnnn....

All of this sudden TTD-related activity is stressing me! What does it mean?!

As long as Chef RJ isn't sighted inspecting the ride area, I'll still believe that TTD will reopen.

Lots of new markings.

CP Rundown FB post

If they were removing the ride, would they need all these markings? I know call before you dig and all that, but I'd expect cranes to appear first before markings.

Lends credence to the idea that they are moving things around.

I don't know. Theses markings extend well past what would be considered for a new queue set up. I see it as leaning towards removal. But I also know enough that I don't know enough. So who knows? 🤣

Per the United State Department of Labor regarding pre-demo procedures:

B. Utility Location

One of the most important elements of the pre-job planning is the location of all utility services. All electric, gas, water, steam, sewer, and other services lines should be shut off, capped, or otherwise controlled, at or outside the building before demolition work is started. In each case, any utility company that is involved should be notified in advance, and its approval or services, if necessary, shall be obtained.

Just sayin'.

Gotta put something in that fenced area next to Express, and I doubt it's for roof-top pieces of a pavilion.

All Cedar Fair Parks are all making there 2023 announcements next Thursday so hopefully some news on the status and fate of TTD! I've always been 50/50 on if TTD stays or go's lets see what happens soon!

Those markings make me think it's a goner. I don't think they'd need all of that if they were getting new trains and tweaking the queue setup.

At the same time, pretty much any level of construction, they'll have the utility people come in and mark everything for reference if nothing else. They've been marking literally everything on the grounds of my townhouse complex and all they're about to do is replace the patio fences.

Just because all the utilities are marked it doesn't mean all the utilities are coming out.

No, but it tells the crane operators where they can or can't set up....

They do mention in the earnings release today some stuff about final depreciation of assets as the "normal course of business."