kyleparks77

Orrrr they're building two coasters. One wood AND one steel

This is what my brain concocted from the webcam Also, there seems to be quite a few concrete trucks headed back into the woods towards Voyage. At 10 cubic yards per truck, that's a lot of footings being poured Possible layout

^ no

Actually, from an engineering standpoint, a brake run needs quite a few footings or end bent type structures. In order to stop that much weight traveling at a significant speed, a great deal of force must be applied to the train and the momentum of the train distributes force back into the structure. This force must then be distributed through the structure and into the footings and dissipated through the ground. Otherwise, the structure would fail or the riders would be injured from the stopping force. Think of a brake run as the inverse of a launch in terms of force distributions. So I wouldn't rule out this being a brake run.

^ I did the same thing with the footings. I searched for construction photos of coasters from every manufacturer (it was a rainy day at work, don't judge me), and only coasters from B&M showed up as square with almond center

Underwater coaster!

Maybe even more confirmation of a launch, but also maybe even more confirmation of a B&M, seeing their launch technology would be brand new to the market? When I saw that tweet, I didn't immediately think coaster technology. Rather, I thought about theming technology. Something very Disney/Universal -ish. "THE technology" leads one to believe its something brand new, whether it be the ride itself or the theming.

^^wow that's exactly what I was picturing

And here's what makes that footing even more interesting: the columns are eccentrically loading the footing, meaning they're not centered. An engineer would not design that under normal conditions because it greatly reduces the load bearing capacity of the footing (and thus requires a larger spread, as we see here). An eccentrically loading footing like this means the forces exerted on it will likely be coming in at an angle. I'm guessing we are looking at a foundation in a sharp curve here. One support will be going towards the top center of the picture and the other will be towards the middle right, forming a "V"-shape. Just a small piece of the puzzle So...the launch starts off heading towards Hyena Falls and then makes a sudden upward bank towards Voyage into a barrel roll?

I'd say that they are most likely "top-of-foundation" markers (i.e. footings) or final grade markers

How tall were these "cones"? Typically survey markers would be set up like that for one of two reasons: to bring the stationing point up higher so that it can been seen from another survey station or to mark a final grade elevation. If they were final grade markers it'd be interesting to see how high that grade is and where they are located.

Now I'm thinking multiple coasters

Based solely on that picture of the footings, I'm going with a Cheetah Hunt-style coaster

It could be any number of reasons but most likely its because the load concentration is at a different angle (curve, banking, different steel member, etc) or it is making room for another structural element (another footing, second steel member joining in at a V shape, underground utilities, etc) Just by looking at the depth and size of each footing one can assume that each will be carrying high load concentrations. In the right of the picture near the excavator is what looks like rebar cages for caisson foundations, which a typically used when higher loads are encountered or poor soil. This implies that there will be the typical steel supports. (But I also don't see a drill rig so the quality of the picture might be deceiving me and those might not be caisson cages). A wooden coaster will typically have shallower and smaller footings but in greater number because the loads are spread out across the frame of the substructure. It could still be a wooden coaster but with a different substructure design than what is typical.

^ when you start talking about footings, site work, rebar, and survey markers like that, it really makes my civil engineering mind happy I can't wait to get up there in a few weeks to see it for myself

^ I agree with your line of thinking there. It wouldn't diverge from HW's style but it would be something new and different

That looks like an old wagon wheel to me. I don't know what steel coasters you've been riding. I'm referring to just the "hub" part. It looks like a steel coaster wheel morphed into it

Day 24 came with this picture. It looks like a train wheel for any steel coaster

^ well then it'll have to be pretty massive to have a larger footprint than Voyage and Thanksgiving. Something that large has to be more expensive almost by default

From Day 11: "The children look to the skies and imagine what secrets exist within the massive clouds. We may never know but will surely dream of them tonight" Hinting at record-breaking height?

We've been preparing all week for the onslaught. I've taken it upon myself to shred all sensitive documents, company-wide. Oh, wait ... Ha! You can never be too careful

Or what if the empty barrel refers to the empty splashdown from PP/G and they're hinting that they will utilize that?

I'm curious about the "empty barrel" reference from day 6. It seems to just be tagged on the end and vague. Or maybe I'm just missing something

^ a long wait indeed. If I did the math right, July 23 is our new "can't wait until" date. But on the up-side of things, with this much effort going into the buildup and teasing, it has to be huge

I was actually thinking this yesterday! But I wasn't going to be the crazy one to say it