Top Thrill Dragster 2022 Status

That's industry speak for "died of natural causes".

When there were markings and activity around the station, I was thinking there was credence to the idea that the queue would be rejiggered. But markings all the way over at BackBeatQue? I know utility markings can extend quite a ways outside the work area, but I cannot recall them ever extending 500+ feet outside the work area, and I can't think of any reason they'd need to excavate near the tower to install new queue railing a thousand feet away near the station.

We've known they know enthusiasts look at markers. How hard would it be for them to ask the surveyor to go a couple hundred feet farther with markings just to keep us guessing?

They extend down to Corkscrew and Iron Dragon's turn arounds too. Seems a bit far if the focus is on removing Dragster but I am not a GC so what do I know. I do have experience with large cranes though and not once have they ever asked about what utilities were under where they would be sitting. Looking at one of the pictures on the TTD midway, the markings head towards the park fence so I would bet they continue out into the Breakers parking lot. These markings could simply be to replace old utilities in this section of the park.

Rejiggered! Lol!!! That’s a new one….. 🤣

As a former civil engineer who worked both on the design side and in survey, I'll offer my two cents.

• The markings seem to be only for utilities that are near the surface. The sanitary isn't marked, which would be deeper than all the currently marked utilities.
• It's common for survey points (the pink markings) to be relatively far away from the limits of construction.
• Utilities are often marked at least 100 feet beyond the limits of construction.

I'd say there's two possible outcomes. One, demolition. Two, queue relocation. Which one is more likely? I couldn't tell you from just pictures of paint markings.

When excavation is planned, it's common to see markings within at least 200 feet, which happens to be the distance from TTD to ID's turnarounds. I think it was during Skyhawk's construction when markings were found in Antique Cars' infield, for example. So if excavation were planned for TTD's site, markings down by Corkscrew/ID would be normal. And excavation would presumably follow disassembly if TTD is indeed on the way out.

But what is there to excavate? Just remove the track and reuse the station for something else.

The footers have to go, it's not sitting directly on sand.......

The footers, the utility conduits... Other than Shoot the Rapids, I can't think of too many Cedar Point additions or demolitions within the last few decades where the lot wasn't completely cleared, leveled, and graded prior to any new construction.

djDaemon said:

And excavation would presumably follow disassembly if TTD is indeed on the way out.

Markings would appear for any of the possible outcomes that involve any construction or demolition where anything is disturbed below the immediate surface. If concrete sidewalk is being removed, then utility markings are needed. If they're drilling holes for new railing posts, then utility markings are needed. If they're tearing out TTD's footers, then utility markings are needed. These markings alone make it nearly impossible to determine anything more than the fact that some sort of disturbance below ground level is going to occur.

More random food for thought, in light of the video of the Space Spiral demo from a page or two ago... I don't really want to see either, but assuming Dragster is definitively on its way out, do we think they'd be more likely to take cranes and disassemble it from the top down, or just implode it all at once like Space Spiral?

TTD may be the one coaster in the park you could conceivably demolish that way, both because of its height and solitary tower structure. It's also got plenty of room in the footprint of the queue and station to bring it down without affecting anything around it, like how Space Spiral was felled towards the beach.

Implosion would probably be cheaper than using cranes to take it down. Cranes that size are insanely expensive to rent.

Put me in the camp that thinks TTD will be removed. Maybe demo starts on the station, launch and return runs, then take down the tower.

Welcome to the camp, Kyle.

Either way, CP has done a great job on keeping everyone guessing about this project opposed to many of the more recent projects that got leaked early on before the announcement.

A piece of the track was damaged right? If it does reopen, that piece would still need to be repaired or replaced. If they really wanted to troll everyone, I could see them removing just that section slowly and obviously over the next few weeks/months and not saying anything.

MichaelB said:

djDaemon said:

And excavation would presumably follow disassembly if TTD is indeed on the way out.

These markings alone make it nearly impossible to determine anything more than the fact that some sort of disturbance below ground level is going to occur.

Agreed, but also, these markings make it possible to determine that some sort of ground disturbance is going to occur in proximity to the markings. And given that the markings extend out from the entirety of TTD's plot - rather than, say, only in one area like the queue - it seems reasonable to conclude that ground disturbance will occur throughout the entirety of TTD's plot. Which doesn't bode well for the future of the ride.

In any case, I would not expect any fanfare or trolling from the park regardless of whether it's coming down or reopening, given that this ride effectively took a person's life through no fault of her own.

TwistedWicker77 said:

Either way, CP has done a great job on keeping everyone guessing about this project opposed to many of the more recent projects that got leaked early on before the announcement.

Eh, all we know is a pavilion is coming, and we didn't need some documents to leak to know that; we can literally see the construction happening.

djDaemon said:

And given that the markings extend out from the entirety of TTD's plot - rather than, say, only in one area like the queue - it seems reasonable to conclude that ground disturbance will occur throughout the entirety of TTD's plot. Which doesn't bode well for the future of the ride.

Not necessarily true. I had numerous projects where only part of a site would be getting refurbished, yet the whole property was considered the limits of construction. Which subsequently meant that the whole site and surrounding area got marked for utilities.

Additionally, if you draw a bubble that is offset 200 feet from the existing queue and where they would likely build a new one it more or less encompasses all the markings.

Again, I'm just sharing my experience in this field (which even includes working for a structural firm that has done work for Cedar Fair) and sharing my perspective of observations that may not be obvious to someone outside this field.