IndyGuy4KI Posted July 28, 2023 Share Posted July 28, 2023 4 minutes ago, Coastercrush said: More problems for fury. Park won't confirm or deny another crack. I'm not sure a weld needing some "possible" attention constitutes as a full crack. It also sounds like these types of things happen time to time and are fixed without our knowing. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor.B03 Posted July 28, 2023 Share Posted July 28, 2023 This silence is really making me question if we should go to Kings Dominion instead, We will be visiting family in the PA area and going to Kennywood on monday, from there, we are planning on going to Carowinds. It seems like it was supposed to open last week but the sudden silence has me scrambling. If it doesn't open by Monday, we may just go to KD instead. The communication was great at first but now it's seems like they do not want to release any statements as they found something and do not want bad press and / or do not want to give people a timeline that may change (Ex: Worlds of Fun) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coastercrush Posted July 28, 2023 Share Posted July 28, 2023 1 hour ago, Taylor.B03 said: This silence is really making me question if we should go to Kings Dominion instead, We will be visiting family in the PA area and going to Kennywood on monday, from there, we are planning on going to Carowinds. It seems like it was supposed to open last week but the sudden silence has me scrambling. If it doesn't open by Monday, we may just go to KD instead. The communication was great at first but now it's seems like they do not want to release any statements as they found something and do not want bad press and / or do not want to give people a timeline that may change (Ex: Worlds of Fun) They were only transparent at the beginning cause the break was all over the news.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teenageninja Posted July 28, 2023 Share Posted July 28, 2023 11 hours ago, Taylor.B03 said: This silence is really making me question if we should go to Kings Dominion instead, We will be visiting family in the PA area and going to Kennywood on monday, from there, we are planning on going to Carowinds. It seems like it was supposed to open last week but the sudden silence has me scrambling. If it doesn't open by Monday, we may just go to KD instead. The communication was great at first but now it's seems like they do not want to release any statements as they found something and do not want bad press and / or do not want to give people a timeline that may change (Ex: Worlds of Fun) Don't commit to anything you can't confirm from their stand point. They don't owe you daily updates. Just go to KD. If Fury is the only reason you are going, I wouldn't bank on it being open. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver2005 Posted July 28, 2023 Share Posted July 28, 2023 Also, I think KD has the better top to bottom ride collection over Carowinds' top heavy lineup. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disco2000 Posted July 28, 2023 Share Posted July 28, 2023 12 hours ago, Taylor.B03 said: This silence is really making me question if we should go to Kings Dominion instead, We will be visiting family in the PA area and going to Kennywood on monday, from there, we are planning on going to Carowinds. It seems like it was supposed to open last week but the sudden silence has me scrambling. If it doesn't open by Monday, we may just go to KD instead. The communication was great at first but now it's seems like they do not want to release any statements as they found something and do not want bad press and / or do not want to give people a timeline that may change (Ex: Worlds of Fun) I wouldn't call it silence - they have been way more upfront than many other parks. Something happened and they are giving it a very detailed inspection that would typically occur after daily operation ends. That is a good thing. As @jsuspointed out, repairs to welds happen all the time and this is just typical media fear mongering... Go to CP and stay at Breakers with a park side room and more times than not you can see the flashes of welding on Steel Vengeance happening in the middle of the night. Does CP send out a press release every time they replace some welds on a coaster? Does any park? You would be surprised how often point repairs are done. What about all the point repairs The Bat got (that are very visible if you know where to look) - did KI provide updates? No they did not... What about every wooden roller coaster? They replace wood on them all the time - like sometimes if you visit consecutive days you can see a decent size that was replaced overnight and can be like "how did they replace that much from park close to park open the next day"? OK, so you are thinking of going to KD instead - their Eiffel Tower, Delirium, and Drop Tower have been down all year - has KD provided a statement as to why they are closed and expected opening? No they have not...and just one day they simply disappeared from the wait times on the app, which probably means they are not going to open this year... So based on your logic of silence, maybe you don't want to visit KD either.... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morebikes Posted July 28, 2023 Share Posted July 28, 2023 13 hours ago, IndyGuy4KI said: I'm not sure a weld needing some "possible" attention constitutes as a full crack. It also sounds like these types of things happen time to time and are fixed without our knowing. Was at Kings Island this week and while waiting to load onto The Bat I noticed a track support weld joint painted a fresh and incorrect orange. It looked like they had fixed a weld crack. Considering the following: * How many high-stress weld joints there are in any given park, * How few welds are visible to riders to visually inspect, and * How easy it should be to repair and color-match... If we're starting to notice these as lay riders, they're probably very common. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodVengeance Posted July 28, 2023 Share Posted July 28, 2023 Apparently there has been a weld indication cited by the North Carolina Department of Labor, likely related to the earlier report of a second crack. Quote CHARLOTTE — A second break on Carowinds’ popular giga coaster Fury 325 has been discovered. Channel 9 began investigating a tip Thursday that there may be a second crack in Carowinds’ popular giga coaster Fury 325, but park officials wouldn’t confirm or deny whether that’s the case. On Friday, the North Carolina Department of Labor confirmed that they were notified of a “weld indication,” which the department said “could be either a break or crack.” It’s been weeks since Carowinds replaced a support beam that had become detached from the Fury’s track. Park inspectors have conducted test rides, but the Department of Labor still hasn’t given the official approval to reopen. https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/channel-9-confirms-second-break-carowinds-fury-325/VXT6UDERRFEQHGEDB37EHH22DI/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor.B03 Posted July 29, 2023 Share Posted July 29, 2023 21 hours ago, Coastercrush said: They were only transparent at the beginning cause the break was all over the news.... I am aware 10 hours ago, teenageninja said: Don't commit to anything you can't confirm from their stand point. They don't owe you daily updates. Just go to KD. If Fury is the only reason you are going, I wouldn't bank on it being open. This is a family trip (Failed to mention), I talked it over and everyone is still fine with going to Carowinds despite Vortex and Fury not operating. We've never been there anyway so it's gonna be just fine. Yeah it sucks that fury isn't operating but that's life sadly. We likely will revisit Carowinds when/if they get a new ride. We've wanted to go to the park since 2021 so we don't wanna delay any further. As for Kings Dominion, we likely will go next year. 10 hours ago, disco2000 said: I wouldn't call it silence - they have been way more upfront than many other parks. Something happened and they are giving it a very detailed inspection that would typically occur after daily operation ends. That is a good thing. As @jsuspointed out, repairs to welds happen all the time and this is just typical media fear mongering... Go to CP and stay at Breakers with a park side room and more times than not you can see the flashes of welding on Steel Vengeance happening in the middle of the night. Does CP send out a press release every time they replace some welds on a coaster? Does any park? You would be surprised how often point repairs are done. What about all the point repairs The Bat got (that are very visible if you know where to look) - did KI provide updates? No they did not... What about every wooden roller coaster? They replace wood on them all the time - like sometimes if you visit consecutive days you can see a decent size that was replaced overnight and can be like "how did they replace that much from park close to park open the next day"? OK, so you are thinking of going to KD instead - their Eiffel Tower, Delirium, and Drop Tower have been down all year - has KD provided a statement as to why they are closed and expected opening? No they have not...and just one day they simply disappeared from the wait times on the app, which probably means they are not going to open this year... So based on your logic of silence, maybe you don't want to visit KD either.... I should of made it clear that I do not believe in any way shape or form that the park is being malicious about this, I always just like to say what's on my mind and sometimes it's not the sharpest / most refined thoughts. I never believe things at face value, research and common sense are a great force to combat hysteria / misinformation from the public and press. I appreciate that parks take to time to regularly inspect, repair, and take time to make decisions that are best for the safety and comfort of guests. The reason I am slightly upset with the sudden silence in this situation is that they made 2 updates within 6 days of each other and doing the things inside those updates, (ex: the testing and replacement timeline). My main concern is that they just all of a sudden stopped all activity after the testing and such, a statement giving a status update along the lines of "Here's what we found, this is what we're doing about it, this is why this is normal, here's what we plan on doing after said action is taken*. It would help people planning on going to the park the assurance that the ride needs more time to have something done to it. I realize though that such a statement would drive down sales since people would likely go elsewhere. The press is ruthless and is unpredictable for how you will be portrayed. The main point I'm trying to say here is that I don't really care that much if we get another update or not, I really just see it as a missed opportunity for those (like me) who were planning on going to the park to update people on such a popular / iconic ride. Carowinds DOES NOT have ANY obligation to give updates, they didn't have to give these updates but they chose to. Wether you believe it was to combat misinformation, media hysteria, satisfy investors, or by the kindness of their own heart, we will likely not know. I personally think they should continue doing these updates but then again, I am some guy on the internet who does not work for that same publicly traded company, I am a fan of said publicly traded company not an industry expert. If everyone in the world had my same opinion on that, there likely would be more updates but my opinion is just 1 of many, many opinions. I don't really like to get too heated about these things, it can really tear into me if I don't stop the negative thoughts. My logic and thought process is not the same as anyone else, nor is anyone else thinking one way or another the exact same, I just hope that I can express my concerns in a way to give others a better perspective on what people who may see things different may be thinking in one moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor.B03 Posted July 29, 2023 Share Posted July 29, 2023 37 minutes ago, jsus said: Here's the way I see it. They have been fully transparent with what is going on thus far. Including whatever trivial repairs the media is trying to use to create hysteria. When the severed column was noticed, the ride was shut down. That day, the park put out a statement acknowledging what would happen, and that the ride would be closed until they could determine how to safely repair it. B&M quickly sent a team of engineers to Carowinds to inspect the ride. Per their analysis, they determined that the overall structure was still in good condition, that the foundations/footings were as they were expected to be. (Bear in mind that structures do tend to settle a little, but this is something that ciivl engineers are aware of and account for... well, Millennium Tower in San Francisco is an exception there.) Carowinds notified us that the course of action was to replace the affected support column. While the ride is closed, they also are taking advantage of the situation to do a thorough inspection of the rest of the ride. They've had maintenance out walking the structure and using various equipment. They've announced that they're going to be using drones to do more frequent, more thorough visual inspections of the hard to reach areas (which the defect leading to the severed column definitely was. As part of any inspection of a steel structure that sees frequently intense load/unload cycles, it is inevitable that small defects will be found. The aim is to find the small issues and patch/repair/address them before they're able to grow into large defects. That would be like when large cars and trucks drive over a bridge at high speeds, or when a roller coaster train passes by at up to 95 mph every couple minutes or so. These inspections and minor repairs happen all the time and no one even notices the vast majority of the time. It's proactive inspection and repair, addressing problems before they pose a threat. There's nothing novel or unusual about this. Given the accusations that Carowinds was lax with their inspections leading to the severed column, we should want them to be extra thorough looking for these minor imperfections/defects and proactively addressing them. That's despite having no reason to believe they didn't follow industry standard practices and those recommended by the manufacturer - B&M. So I suppose the point is, they've already told us that they're currently performing these tests and inspections, while running the required 500 test cycles before the ride can be re-certified by the state DoL. These minor issues that get patched up before they pose any safety hazard, they aren't the sort of thing that really needs to get reported, so long as they're keeping logs of the repairs and watching out for the same issue in the same spot cropping up. Nonetheless, when they were asked about whether they'd found any further issues, they were upfront with us. They shared that there are these "slight weld indications" which are a normal part of these structures, and how they address them safely. Unless and until someone can point out to me a piece of steel on the ride that has more than a minor, easily patched defect, there doesn't seem to be any reason for concern here. Let's also keep in mind that the cars that we drive/ride to the park rarely see any structural inspection, even those driven frequently in states prone to rusting. The airplanes you might fly on to visit a distant park undergo similar repairs to what Carowinds is referencing. Many of the bridges you pass under likely have plywood boards under their substructure to hold them together/catch any falling debris. All of this is to say that even the hysteria-causing media has not yet actually shown us anything that presents a reason for concern. Carowinds is inspecting and repairing the ride, looking for all the small defects to address before they spread. That's what we want them to do, so they can safely reopen Fury 325. I've never and will never doubt the safety of the ride or any ride, I'm not sure why you keep bringing that up. I'm more talking about being someone who just wants the park to say *It won't be ready for a bit longer*, that's really all I want them to confirm. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodVengeance Posted July 29, 2023 Share Posted July 29, 2023 Someone on reddit has reported seeing the ride test today 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndyGuy4KI Posted July 30, 2023 Share Posted July 30, 2023 I happened to see this as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disco2000 Posted July 30, 2023 Share Posted July 30, 2023 Another fear mongering article. An expert says ""If it's happening in various locations, they didn't have certified or qualified welders," .... "I mean, here's the question: Would you let your mother ride on that thing? Absolutely not."" This expert is claimed to be an NCDOT-certified welder, which means he works on bridges. I wonder if he can explain why 1,300 bridges in North Carolina are deemed structurally deficient and 5,400 bridges are in need of repair. In other words, the bridges that hundreds of thousands of people in vehicles pass over every day in his state are in worse condition than any operating ride in North Carolina. He is okay letting his mother travel over those... A roller coaster would not be permitted to operate if it were structurally deficient or in need of repair, yet the bridges are allowed to continue to operate. There are usually more deaths from a bridge failure than roller coaster failures. Heck there are probably more bridge failures (collapse) every year than there are roller coaster failures. Obviously he has not worked on roller coasters. The stresses on those are much different than other welding situations, including bridges. I cannot believe that he has not done a point repair on a bridge over his 20 year career. Probably not a steel coaster exists that hasn't had a spot repair at some point during its life. https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/carowinds-fury-325-second-crack-break-north-carolina-officials-statement-support-beam-repairs-update/275-48386e32-a338-461a-a34d-ceffd47f4489?fbclid=IwAR2D5oXEm8Ai8H6oPyPu4VuJxrM58BaSS6aVIOadO1KtVhxpHUh_A9UXyHw 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhimes90 Posted July 30, 2023 Share Posted July 30, 2023 On 7/27/2023 at 8:56 PM, Taylor.B03 said: This silence is really making me question if we should go to Kings Dominion instead, We will be visiting family in the PA area and going to Kennywood on monday, from there, we are planning on going to Carowinds. It seems like it was supposed to open last week but the sudden silence has me scrambling. If it doesn't open by Monday, we may just go to KD instead. The communication was great at first but now it's seems like they do not want to release any statements as they found something and do not want bad press and / or do not want to give people a timeline that may change (Ex: Worlds of Fun) Sometimes the "silence" is necessary. There is a lot of legality surrounding any type of "comment" made from the park. If they say the welds are bad, Clermont Steel could come back and file a defamation or slander lawsuit. It's always better to know something as fact before any news is released. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disco2000 Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 On 7/6/2023 at 7:31 PM, IndyGuy4KI said: This got me thinking. How many bridges do we drive over every day that are not inspected regularly enough and would be deemed unsafe or condemned if they were? We probably don't want to know the answer to that question. I mentioned this before in the thread, but many of our bridges are in worse shape than any amusement park ride in the USA! Could you ever see a roller coaster support ever approach close to this level? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnjniehaus Posted September 13, 2023 Share Posted September 13, 2023 On 9/11/2023 at 5:34 PM, disco2000 said: I mentioned this before in the thread, but many of our bridges are in worse shape than any amusement park ride in the USA! Could you ever see a roller coaster support ever approach close to this level? And people thought Vortex was sinking/too dangerous to ride? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tr0y Posted October 23, 2023 Share Posted October 23, 2023 Any word from the state of NC concluding its investigation? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disco2000 Posted October 23, 2023 Share Posted October 23, 2023 13 minutes ago, Tr0y said: Any word from the state of NC concluding its investigation? It is up and running and that is all anyone cares about Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndyGuy4KI Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 On 10/23/2023 at 8:40 AM, Tr0y said: Any word from the state of NC concluding its investigation? Here ya go! Quote The crack was caused by “unidirectional bending fatigue,” the report says. It says the fracture started at toe of the weld, which is the edge of it. Because of where it formed, engineers called the crack a “stress raiser” and the report says it accelerated the formation of that fracture. https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/state-releases-report-carowinds-rides-cracked-support-beam/P7WVR3T3UJGE5JHFDI4IM5TUTU/?outputType=amp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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