Construction Update 9/24/10

Today was a gray, misty, windy Friday.  Yesterday the Green Bay area received a lot of rain which has slowed progress on the foundation work.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

There was some new components for the coaster at the site today.  Amongst some new structural steel was the ratchet bars which when paired with pawls on the car give the coaster that satisfying clicking sound as it climbs the first hill.  This is actually a safety feature which would prevent the car from rolling down the lift hill if something fails on its climb to the top.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

I was also able to get a look at some of the blue prints for the work going on, in a couple of these prints you can see the layout of the loading unloading area and an elevation showing the loading house.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

This print shows the general layout of the whole foundation, the out and back part is superimposed in the upper left hand cover to fit it all on one page.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

The foundation work is still centered on the eastern side of the coaster, this is where the lift hill, loading/unloading area, and the first hills and turns are located.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

The other part of the coaster which is the "out and back" part has not had any foundation work up to this point.  I did trudge through the wet muck out to the furthest point the coaster will travel, some earth has been moved out here but there are no stakes or foundation work under way yet.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Back at the eastern end of the coaster the new foundation work is completing the first 180° turn.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Just outside of this turn is one of the upper turns, this turn will be near the giant slide, you will go around it after going down the first hill and then back up a hill.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

There is one other 180° turn to create the foundation for, I would expect we will start seeing some of those footings going in the over the next couple of weeks.

If you want to see all of the photos taken to date click on any of the pictures above or the link to the photo album on the upper right part of the blog.

Construction Update 9/17/2010

Today was my first official visit to the job site, complete with hard hat :-)

Mayor Jim Schmitt and his chief of staff Sean Stephenson met me at the construction site.  I was very impressed that the mayor came out to meet me, his energy and enthusiasm for this project is amazing.  We donned our hard hats and started looking around.  Some things were immediately obvious, the bulk of the treated lumber that will make up the structure of the coaster is now on site and anxiously waiting to be put in place.  Here are some of the pictures of the lumber, as I was leaving the site another load was arriving.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

For the last couple of weeks we've seen the foundation work for some of the straight sections going into place, now footings are going in for the first turn, these shots show the concrete that will support the first curved section of track, after loading the trains you will slowly take a 180° turn before climbing the lift hill.  When you first load you will be facing the giant slide, refer to my last post for an overview of the layout of the track.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

I had a chance to talk to some of the people working on the foundation. They described this as a very challenging project due to the spread out nature of the footings and the precision required. They hope to wrap up the concrete work by Thanksgiving.

The next photos show the area of the track where the first drop occurs, note the angled straps that will anchor the supports for the taller sections.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Mayor Schmitt talked about his trip to Memphis when they were considering purchasing the coaster and how fond the local people were of the original Zippin Pippin, how both children and adults enjoyed the ride. He also mentioned they were working on plans to bring one of the original trains up from Memphis, perhaps positioning it near the coaster so people will be able to sit in it and have their picture taken. They also may bring back a large gear from the original lift mechanism and have it on display.

I asked one of the workers creating the foundation if they were using the plans from the original coaster. He said the layout of the track and hills are the same but the foundation and structure were redesigned.

Construction Update 9/12/2010

After watching the Packers beat the Eagles I high tailed it out to the construction site with the sun low in the sky.  There is now quite a bit more concrete in the ground and you can start to see one area where there will clearly be a hill.  Note the picture below and the angled steel straps, these straps will support angled wooden structures to support a hill.  You'll notice the distance between vertical sections with the blocks of wood and these new angled straps is getting larger, the further away the straps are the taller that section of the track will be.  This area is actually the foundation and beginning of the structure for the first drop.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

From Zippin Pippin Construction

If you compare some of these latest pictures to the new map at the official Zippin Pippin Website (click on "location" at the top left and scroll all the way to the bottom) you can start to see how the concrete work is aligning to the layout of the coaster.  The image below is the layout from the official site with some key areas labeled and arrows added to the track line to show the direction of movement.  Between the picture below and the photos of the original Zippin Pippin I think most of the labels and direction of travel are correct.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

No new materials were noted on site tonight, there is still a lot of re-bar waiting to be used!

It was a beautiful mid-September evening at the construction site, the view looking out over the Bay was fabulous, the picture below really doesn't do it justice.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

As always click on a photo or the link to the photo album at the upper right to see all of the pictures and captions.

Construction Update 9/5/2010

I stopped out at the construction site today.  There is now some concrete in place along with some of the first steel straps that will anchor the wood columns to the foundation.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

It appears the first section being built is the loading/unloading section.  If I am comparing the excellent aerial photo of the original Zippin Pippin from the folks at News Plus Notes to the construction going on at the site I am fairly certain that the ride will load at the area shown to the left in this picture, the trains would be facing towards the giant slide.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Upon exiting the loading area the cars will make a quick 180° turn and head up the lift hill toward the west (coming straight towards us in the picture above).  After climbing the lift hill the cars take another 180° turn heading back toward the east and the giant slide, going down the first hill you will be facing east (toward the giant slide) you will then go up a hill and take another 180° turn so you are facing west (away from the giant slide) from there you will go down another large hill, through some smaller bunny hills (hopefully getting some good airtime) then out to the extreme western edge of the ride before turning 180° again and beginning your journey back to the loading area.

The photo below was taken looking to the west, if there was track and a train on the track the first car would be facing towards us and we would be looking at the front row.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

The next photo was taken looking east, if there was track and a train on the track the train would be facing away from us and we would be looking at the rear row.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Some new material was also spotted on site today, several pallets of hardware, these are nuts and bolts that will hold the wooden structure together.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Luckily there was a small break in the fence which is now nearly complete allowing me to get up close for some of these pictures.

From Zippin Pippin Construction

Knowing my access to the site would soon be restricted, I contacted the Mayor of Green Bay, Jim Schmitt who is the main force behind bringing the Zippin Pippin to Bay Beach to see if it may be possible for me to get inside the fence periodically.  Mayor Schmitt agreed to try to get me access to the site so I can continue to report on the building progress.  So hopefully I'll continue to get some good close up pictures of the various components as they are added to the structure.  Thanks Mayor Schmitt!

You can click any of the pictures above or the photo album in the upper right corner of the page to be taken to the complete on-line photo album with all of the pictures I've taken.