Top Thrill Dragster 2022 Status

It always baffles me how often people like jake10 speak with such certainty about things they have no actual information on.

Small update regarding the current state of the triangle.

Looks like that channel (Lake Erie Lifestyles) plans on flying their drone often in order to document changes. Not gonna matter for much longer with the season fast approaching.

As for the cofferdam. The pilings look to be set to their final depth and it appears crews are starting to fill the area in with aggregate.

Did Lake Erie Lifestyles get permission from CP to fly a drone over the park?

Unless I'm missing something, there's more circumstantial evidence pointing to Zamperla than there is pointing to Intamin.

A few posts above, Ride Man mentioned the track shipments. When they were shipped to Europe there were some on here that actually tracked the shipments. Has there been any activity of shipments coming back to the USA? Perhaps not as of yet. I wonder if some sleuths can look into it.

Jake 10 taking heat on the no spike take, while I kept insisting "lagoon maintenance"! I can admit when I am likely wrong as that fill they are pouring looks to cover up the triangle tip that extended into the lagoon. Team Lagoon Maintenance dis-banded.

Some additional, more recent coverage, courtesy of "rcbif" via Reddit.

I am by no means a trained or certified engineer of any sort, but I've seen a few foundation layers placed down before and that looks a lot to me more like a queue area than it does the depth required for anything of substantial load-bearing capacity. I feel like they would have dug out more to pour concrete deeper unless they're going to build up above that but I don't know how viable that is.

Interesting to me that they put down aggregate and then a thin layer it appears of concrete rather than digging further and pouring a much deeper concrete block on top of the aggregate. Also not seeing the telltale footers sticking up out of the foundation if that's what it is.

Based on the pictures we've seen did anyone notice if they laid any rebar in that?

Additional work could still be done.....later. With the season approaching, the plan may be to just set the pilings and then resume work on it in the fall. I imagine they want to get Iron Dragon's track/supports back into place so they can get it ready for the season.

I am seeing a stable platform being built in the center portion of the triangle while the corners being left open( at this point). Perhaps for a drilling rig to set in the middle to drill for deep piers in the three corners. Upon which a large slab foundation could be built on the piers. My speculation at this point.

I know nothing about most things, but am uniquely ignorant on civil engineering. This being the internet, that, naturally, will not impede me from uninformed, wild speculation.

I will just say it appears highly unlikely to go through this elaborate of a project and depth for a queue area, not to mention the curious shape and location, all of which are consistent with some type of footer structure.

My only comment is that they must really like that photo building

It's a classic magician's diversion. Pay attention to one hand (this triangle) while I do something else in the other (pour an actual footer under the roof of that photo building where no one can see it). /s

kylepark:

Did Lake Erie Lifestyles get permission from CP to fly a drone over the park?

They don't need permission. The sky is the jurisdiction of the FAA. There might have been an altitude restriction when the airport was still there, but it appears clear now. There are some largely untested legal theories about privacy and photography, but I imagine that's a hard case to make over an outdoor amusement park. As long as they're flying at a reasonably high altitude, there's probably not anything the park can do.

I believe he also said he's not actually flying over the park, he just has a really good camera on the drone.

Since Cedar Point is not under restricted airspace and there are no temporary flight restrictions, I don't see why anyone wouldn't be allowed to fly a drone over the park. It's just like flying a drone over someone's house, not illegal and you don't need permission from the park.

I've flown at 400 feet, and you can get a lot of detail out of a 48MP image. But there's nothing stopping him from flying over the park. Depending on the drone, he can sit at Battery Park and go from there.

I've been on team spike since this triangle thing, and leaning towards that since the ID track removal.

But I can't make sense of why they are filling it with gravel instead of pouring concrete in it, and im also wondering what those plank like things are along the Lagoon side of the triangle in the pics Brandon posted above.

To me that makes it look less like a footer for a giant structure, and more like who knows what.

Anybody knowledgeable in these types of construction techniques that can provide some insight into that?

The planking looks like a mat for the crane. It spreads the weight of the crane out over a larger area so that the crane does not sink into the ground.

Yes those are crane mats. I do wonder if they may have done everything they intended to do now and are just preparing for next off season like someone else had proposed

veritas55:

I will just say it appears highly unlikely to go through this elaborate of a project and depth for a queue area

I don't know how elaborate that was. They made a cofferdam and filled in the hole. For some reason they need that space to be not water. Perhaps for a crane for later construction.

Looks like lagoon maintenance.