Bay Beach Amusement Park Discussion Thread

I have been meaning to get over there and check out site! Is only like 2 miles from my door. Drove past a few weeks ago but was way to busy to stop!

Does anyone know who is building it? Or if any of the traditional wood coaster companies are helping out with this project?

^The Gravity Group is helping build it. Bay Beach bought the blueprints for Zippin Pippin so they already had the design, but they hired The Gravity Group as consultants and I believe they are helping construct the ride along with Martin & Vleminckx.

Does anyone know who is building it? Or if any of the traditional wood coaster companies are helping out with this project?

According to RCDB, Gravity Group is listed under designer (along with John A. Miller), and construction will be Martin & Vleminckx. Also the trains and some mechanical hardware will be used from Thunder Eagle (Race World).

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20100831/GPG0101/100831012/Resch-Center-builder-has-inside-track-on-Zippin-Pippin-job

Now that work on the Zippin Pippin’s concrete foundation is under way, it’s time to pick a contractor to build the roller coaster’s huge wooden frame.

Green Bay city officials will open bids at 2 p.m. today from construction firms interested in the roller coaster assembly job.

Reaching up to 70 feet in the air, the wooden coaster will cover about five acres at Bay Beach Amusement Park.

The $3 million project is a recreation of a roller coaster that operated for many years in Memphis, Tenn., and was Elvis Presley's favorite amusement park ride.

The project is being funded through $2.4 million in city borrowing and a planned $600,000 in private donations. It is scheduled to open next May.

Now that the ground has been broken and the structure will start to rise, I think it's time for everyone to eat a peanut butter and banana sandwich to celebrate this occasion (if you want to eat this sandwich fried, then go ahead lest you want your belly to stick out so much you cannot fit into the restraints and be denied to ride unless you are already a skinny wink and the extra calories won't hurt you).

I think my pillow wants to impersonate as Elvis.

"Treated like a fool, treat me mean and cruel, but love me. Lie your head on me and go right off to sleep, just love me! Thank you, thank you very much!

Construction photos can be found here http://www.ci.green-bay.wi.us/ZippinPippin/photos.html

My wife and I took a detour on the way to the grocery store to check out the progress of the contruction first hand. I had been keeping an eye on construction. Had been away for a week or so decided to drive past and luck would have it my wife's camera was in her purse! I present to you our findings!

Welcome to the construction site

a woodie has to start somewhere!

I love wood!!!

making use of the zooooooooom

east side of the construction fence

wood and footer work

zooooooooom

rebar for additional footers

thru the fence

MY awsome wife surfing wisconsin style! We recieved heavy rain friday night and caused some light flooding.

Thanks for checking these out photos! Can't wait till spring till it opens.!!! Finally i coaster i don't have to drive 3+ hours to get to!

Yay! It looks like it's coming along finally!

Just a question-is all of the structure new and built to the original specs or is some of it original?

Despite the publicity material using a Morgan train to promote this recreation of the Zippin Pippin, the coaster will actually utilize standard PTC three-bench rolling stock. While not new, these are rehabbed trains that operated briefly on Thunder Eagle in Pigeon Forge, TN. (More info on TE and Carl Ragan's pic can be found at: http://rcdb.com/606.htm)

The track layout is the same as the original, according to one of the workers laying the foundation the footings and structure have been redesigned. There are no original parts and pieces being used. Green Bay is bringing some of the original hardware up to Bay Beach for display purposes. I'm updating the progress about every week and have gained access to go inside the fence, a couple of posts ago they even let me snap a couple of pictures of the blueprints. You can keep up to date at: http://zippinpippin.blogspot.com/

Some great progress at the job site this week, the first drop frameworks is nearly complete, check out the latest at http://www.zippinpippin.blogspot.com

Update

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20101027/GPG0101/310270206/Zippin-Pippin-looking-like-a-roller-coaster

Things are really moving along now, check out all of the latest news and pictures at http://www.zippinpippin.blogspot.com, here is a quick sample.

I feel like not many people are following Zippin' Pippin'. It's being built pretty fast (or atleast it seems like it). Summer 11' I'll probably try to make a trip to Valley Fair, Bay Beach, and the Dells. Can't wait!

Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt is stepping up his fundraising goal to cover cost overruns on the Zippin Pippin roller coaster. City officials say the construction project now is expected to cost $3.5 million, up from the original $3 million estimate.

 

Schmitt said $300,000 in city reserves have been tapped, and he believes private donations will cover the rest of the deficit. "We're still confident that we're going to have more revenues from other sources," he said.

 

The Zippin Pippin, under construction at Bay Beach Amusement Park, originally was planned to be covered by $2.4 million in city borrowing and $600,000 in expected donations.

 

On Tuesday, Schmitt said the original $3 million project budget was based on an early estimate that the foundation would cost about $200,000. That estimate was later discarded in favor of a more realistic $600,000 estimate, but it remained part of the project budget, resulting in the $300,000 in cost overruns.

 

The contingency fund was established using a Bay Beach reserve fund, which now is down to $650,000. Referring to the contingency, the mayor said, "We knew we would probably need it."

 

Construction got under way in August and is scheduled to continue through the winter.

 

The wooden roller coaster, scheduled to open next May, is intended as a replica of a longtime Memphis, Tenn., attraction renowned as Elvis Presley's favorite amusement park ride. Green Bay officials hope it will draw big crowds to Bay Beach.

 

SMA Construction Services LLC of Abrams is being paid $513,660 to install the ride's concrete foundation, and Miron Construction Co. of Neenah won the $936,753 job of assembling the wooden frame. City officials initially said both contracts were under budget.

 

But officials recently disclosed that they have exhausted a $300,000 contingency fund because of the higher-than-expected costs on the foundation job. Parks Director Bill Landvatter recently told the City Council the increased costs had "pretty much eaten up" the contingency. Landvatter also told aldermen that the project was likely to cost as much as $3.5 million.

 

The owner of SMA Construction Services later said his company has not encountered sizeable problems. Company owner Mike Abhold said his crews are nearly finished and have generated only minor cost overruns. "I guarantee it's nowhere near $300,000," Abhold said.

 

City staffers described about $28,000 in added costs for excavating deeper underground and adding more fill than they anticipated to stabilize the foundation.

 

Schmitt said he expects to have no trouble raising more in private donations to cover the remainder of the project deficit. He said he was not ready to divulge details, although he said last month that he was more than halfway to his original goal of $600,000. "I am committed to delivering this project," he said.

 

Chuck Bingham, a spokesman for consultant Martin & Vleminckx Rides LLC, which is overseeing the roller coaster project, said his firm was aware of cost overruns on the foundation job. Bingham, however, said there have been no other issues on the project. "It couldn't be better," he said.

Here's some updates on the ride. The website doesn't let you link to individual photos, so album links will have to do.

- As of December 23 the main structure has been completed.

http://www.ci.green-bay.wi.us/ZippinPippin/images/23December2010/index.html

- Portions of track have been placed and work on the station has started as well.

http://www.ci.green-bay.wi.us/ZippinPippin/images/6January2011/index.html

http://www.ci.green-bay.wi.us/ZippinPippin/images/25January2011/index.html

The device was used to slow or stop the train as it approaches and enters the station.

This brake will be on display at the new Zippin Pippin rollercoaster.

Modern braking methods will be employed for the new coaster at Bay Beach Amusement Park.

-The Bay Beach website as a whole has been redone to look more like the Zippin Pippin website.

http://www.ci.green-bay.wi.us/BayBeach/index.html

- According to the site the ride will open with the park on May 7.

- The ride will cost four tickets, tickets are 25 cents each.

Only a dollar to ride? Man, that's cheap.

^ And it's still the most expensive ride in the park.

They posted an update on their Facebook....

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=198633770158459&id=124473544241149&aid=45201

So far, the ride seems to be going well. No information on testing yet, but the ride is still set to open on opening day, May 7th. The ride actually looks pretty fun and turned out very well, glad a park would do something like this.

ADMIN EDIT: I went ahead and uploaded all of the photos to the thread. Thanks for sharing this with us!

Wow! The ride really looks fantastic!

Looking good!

This looks amazing! I can't wait to take a trip up there this summer.

I'm so excited about this ride. I can't wait to ride it this summer. Even though it's a "replica" of the Zippin Pippin, I'm sure it will still bring back some great memories.

I'll try and get out to ride this, looks like it's coming along great! although i don't think it will utilize single position lap bars ;(. but hopefully it's won't take too much away from the ride experience