Construction Update 12/30/2010

The final update for 2010, the weather today was unseasonably warm with temps in the mid 30's melting snow and rain in the forecast. The site was nice and sloppy on the final day of the year for the crews building the Bay Beach version of the Zippin Pippin roller coaster.

With the representatives from MVR at home for the holidays local crews weren't able to place the last remaining bents and finish the main structure. Out at the out and back turn around the structure looks very similar to last week.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Crews have finished adding the railings and walkways to this part of the structure. The action this week was centered inside the main oval of zone 1 and 2. As you can see in the pictures below the steel structure for the transfer station is complete.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

The other major activity inside of the oval involves the exit ramp. A lot of progress has been made in this area since last week.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Utility crews were back on site today working on running power to the lift house.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

In this view of the transfer station you will notice a break in the white horizontal members, this is where riders will enter the transfer platform, the stairs will start at this point and move down and to the right.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

I took some extra pictures to generate one north facing panorama...

From Zippin Pippin Construction

and two south facing panoramas...

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

That wraps up the updates for 2010, in 2011 we will see much more detail work completed leading up to the first tests and rides in 2011. Happy New Year to all!

Construction Update 12/23/2010

I made an early visit to the Bay Beach Zippin Pippin Roller Coaster construction site hoping to get a chance to see the latest progress before work wrapped up for the holiday weekend. I was able to get there before crews took a well deserved break for the holidays. The latest updates are below.

The first thing I noticed was work has started on the steel support structure for the roof of the transfer station where riders will load and exit the ride. The steel supports I first noticed on 12/16/2010 didn't have to wait long to be put to use. Workers were busy welding these into place atop white steel columns that are also new since last week. The pictures below show the work in action.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

In addition to the roof work the exit ramp coming off the loading platform is starting to take shape, the image below shows this work on the left side with the new roof structure visible in the background.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

The new forms at the entrance to the queue going under the lift hill are now gone and left behind is new concrete in this area.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Work has also restarted on the structure housing the lift motor. There are now walls and a roof on the building.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Out in zone 3 there has been a little bit of progress on the turn around of the out and back. A few more bents are in place and one other waiting to be put into place. Completing the structure should go very quickly after the holidays.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Standing at the turn around and looking back towards the east the entire standing structure is visible in this picture.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Walking back towards Zone 1 and 2 I love this view of the track leading to the out and back.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Before leaving I took four quick shots of the entire structure facing North and stitched them together creating this image. To see a higher resolution version of this image click on it to be taken to the on-line photo album.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

That is the update for this week, I hope to make one more visit before the end of 2010.

Construction Update 12/16/2010

I visited the job site this week on Thursday the 16th hoping to be able to get inside the fence and get some good close up pictures again. It turns out crews were working so I was able to wade through the drifts of snow we received last weekend and enjoy a nice cold sunny December noon hour checking out the latest progress on the Zippin Pippin Roller Coaster.

The first thing I noticed was the structure now extended nearly all the way to the turn around of the out and back, the structure is now split out at the far western edge of the layout, the two sides have just about finished diverging and should start converging to close the final loop of the structure. This will mark the completion of the most dramatic part of the construction and then more detailed work will begin. The new areas of the structure are shown below.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

With the foundation now complete (see image below) the structure should be complete just after Christmas, just a couple of days longer than originally hoped but still on schedule.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Where the out and back splits for the turnaround you can see the banking the track will take on the LH side of this image.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

At the other end of the out and back you can see the return path into the brake run on the left hand side and on the right hand side some of the track has already been laid for the lane that heads into the out and back.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

I peeked inside of the zone 1 and 2 oval and snapped a picture looking east and west to see the inside of the structure.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

I also got an image of what a rider in the front car of the train would see just before the ride starts, of course there wouldn't be any snow if there were people on the ride!

From Zippin Pippin Construction

You can see they are getting ready for some of the more detailed work on the site, the steel structure that will make up the roof of the loading platform is now on site.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

At the queue entrance, which goes under the lift hill structure more foundation work is now under way.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

That is the update for this week. In the next week or two I hope to do an email interview with the Gravity Group to ask them some questions about this project and other general questions. If you have any questions leave a comment and I'll pass along the question (assuming it's reasonable).

I hope to post next week but if I don't I would like to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season!

Construction Update 12/10/2010

For the second week in a row the site was closed during my visit, next week I plan on visiting Thursday instead of Friday in case the crews are taking Friday's off. I still walked around the site and got some good pictures of the progress. I also attempted to take some pictures that would work well with the Microsoft Photosynth site, the results aren't quite there yet but you still get the idea. After the structure is complete I plan to make an extended visit and walk around the entire roller coaster getting pictures the whole way around it including close ups of areas of interest, if it works the results should be pretty cool and allow people to virtually walk around the site. To get a glimpse of what this looks like check out the embedded Photosynth below or click here to go to the full site.



Now it's time to get on to the new progress for this week, the first think you'll notice is we now have snow on the ground, the forecast is calling for a major storm Saturday so the Pippin is going to be cold for a while! In the photo below you will see the snow and the structure for the first hill on the out and back.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

If you look closely at the picture above you can see the area where they plan to reroute the train through the roller coaster structure, a close up of this along with a picture of this location on the plans is below.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

The shot below shows just this first hill of the out and back along with the train pass through area.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

This portion of the structure supports two lanes of tracks, one for the out, one for the back, if we flip to the other side (facing south rather than north) we can see the outline of one of the last hills of the out and back prior to heading into the final brake run and loading station. It's a little bit difficult to see since the track itself has not been laid yet, on the far left you can see a valley and then as you move to the right the track will be rising again to get over the train pass through area, if you would like to see a larger resolution image click on the picture.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Out at the far end, the turn around of the out and back all of the footings are now complete.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

While out at this end of the ride you can get a great view of the entire standing structure.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Standing at the Northeast corner of the site and looking back you get a nice view of the lift hill with the start of the out and back structure in the distance.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Finally from the Southeast corner you get a great view of the run of three hills that come after the hill leading out of turn 3.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

That is the update for this week, hopefully next week I'll be able to get back on site and get some close up shots of more of the details of the construction. It's clear that at the pace the construction is moving the structure should be complete in about two weeks.

Construction Update 12/3/2010

I'm a bit late writing this post, I visited the site yesterday an unfortunately Miron was not on the job site. This means I was not able to sign in, don my hard hat and safety glasses and get up close to the Roller Coaster to get some good close up pictures. I did the best I could from behind the safety of the fence that encircles the job site. The latest pictures are below.

The big news this week is the structure for turn 2 is completed, with this turn complete the lift hill is now joined to the first drop.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

The structure has also started extending into zone 3, the out and back portion of the roller coaster.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Some track has now been laid on the last hill prior to the out and back part of the ride, the rider queue passes just under the highest part of this hill. It looks like there may be some good airtime as you pass over this hill.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Out at the turn around in zone 3 the final footings have been poured. They are still covered by tarps to keep them warm while they cure.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Around the north side of the coaster I took five separate pictures of the current structure as it looks facing south and then used the Microsoft ICE tool to stitch them together into one composite image showing the total standing structure as of this date.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

As I left the site I took one final shot of the entire structure from the south side looking to the north. This is the complete structure for Zone 1 and Zone 2.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Note the new widget on the right hand side of the blog. I stumbled across the Pepsi refresh project. Pepsi is donating money to help support local projects. Someone has entered the Zippin Pippin as one of the projects, click on the link on the right to vote for the Zippin Pippin roller coaster.