Top Thrill Dragster 2022 Status

That 3rd pic isn't the sharpest, but I'm not seeing any development in the old Matterhorn/Scrambler, Dive in, or Cedars areas.

If I had to guess, this is drainage, as in draining before they put in a footer.

Frog Hopper King:

But for real, ignore what he has to say...

He said "queue line" no fewer than three times, so yes.

Also, assuming the entire cofferdam will be a footer is a pretty massive assumption. Do we have examples of cofferdams being a foundation rather than providing an area in which to construct a (considerably smaller) footer?

I don’t think so. I don’t think the entire cofferdam would be a footer. Just to prepare the ground for something. Hopefully footers

There is also the possibility that it could be used as a foundation, iirc the base of the TTD tower has a foundation under the dirt with many footers poured on top of that foundation. There aren't any photos of this, so i definitely could be wrong. I believe Windseeker also uses that same method (even though it doesn't have footers. Just a large concrete foundation).

Your right DJ, this small section here is the land missing in order to create a line for dragster. Totally worth the cost to deconstruct ID and do all this work for 5 more feet of queue.

djDaemon:

He said "queue line" no fewer than three times, so yes.

Only “expert engineers” use that verbiage. You probably wouldn’t know 😉

DRE420:

There is also the possibility that it could be used as a foundation, iirc the base of the TTD tower has a foundation under the dirt with many footers poured on top of that foundation. There aren't any photos of this, so i definitely could be wrong.

Yep, this is commonly done with coaster footers. I can't find any pictures that show this being done for TTD, but here's a picture of GK's construction, where pairs of support footers are built upon a common, larger foundation.

And this is from Maverick's construction, specifically the final break run and turn into the station, as well as some for the turn into the tunnel.

So I definitely think with new pics it’s just a spike. But I had a wild idea (this is RCT moment and not me being 100% serious). What if they added a second larger top hat? Launch up the current 420 ft top hat. Drop + speed run up to a new second 500+ ft second top hat….

Front Seat Rider:

It is an awful big coincidence for a triangle the right size in the right spot to be pointed in the right direction.

It's pointing in three directions.

New prediction: tri-directional "queue line" coming!

One downside to all this. Remember when riding Iron Dragon felt like you were way off in the woods? It was half of the appeal of the ride. Still a good family coaster but now it’s even more exposed. Felt the same with Orion getting close to the Beast.

I remember when riding Iron Dragon (especially at night) felt like flying through all of the trees. It was a better ride experience back then. Honestly, I kind of wish that ID and Mine ride would be replaced with new family attractions similar to fire chaser at Dollywood.

Saw a comment on Reddit that someone did some napkin math to determine the dimensions of that piling. 92 FT x 42 x 42. If we assume the footer(s) are relatively close to the three corners then we are theoretically talking about the potential for an absolutely MASSIVE spike. Twisters widest point for footers was 25 feet and those spikes were 200+.

I saw that napkin math as well, and there’s no way the longer side of that triangle is more than twice the length as the shorter sides, so I don’t know how much faith I’d put in anything they have to say.

Assuming that the spike is really happening—and I'm still not yet completely sold on that—surely Intamin has to be involved, right? TTD is their coaster, and they have plenty of experience with building coasters with swing launches.

I'm having a very difficult time imagining CP choosing anyone else for this task, despite the previous rumors of Zamperla's involvement.

CPVet:

saw that napkin math as well, and there’s no way the longer side of that triangle is more than twice the length as the shorter sides,

Fair point. I’m trying to sleuth out what model that green generator inside the triangle is. If we new the dimensions of that it would be pretty easy to adjust for scale and get a relatively accurate idea

Agreed, I would be shocked if it's not Intamin. Zamperla does not have the track record with roller coasters of this speed or size let alone being able to come in and retrofit someone's design on a coaster of this magnitude. Especially if they are going to be building a spike and a swing launch which is something Intamin has perfected over the last several years. Companies change and grow all the time and Intamin has gotten a lot better and more reliable recently so I am hoping that Cedar Fair will give them another chance.

Armchair engineering measurements, based off perspective skewed reference points, is more like roughly 90' x 68' x 68'.

CoasterLine:

Armchair engineering measurements, based off perspective skewed reference points, is more like roughly 90' x 68' x 68'.

I mean if that is pretty close then we are talking even bigger than the Reddit math came up with. Which lends more credence to the possibility of the thing being HUGE. And on that note I’m curious what the base dimensions of the Pantheon footers are