Carowinds, along with manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard, have completed the inspection of Fury 325, the roller coaster that suffered a visible crack on one of its support columns last month.
"In partnership with B&M, we have performed a battery of tests to identify the cause of the fracture, which appears to have formed along a weld line in the steel column," Carowinds said in a statement released to the press today.
Bolliger & Mabillard now is fabricating a new support column for Fury 325, which is expected to be delivered to the park next week. Following installation, Carowinds will resume testing the coaster, including an accelerometer test and 500 test cycles of the ride.
"Once this phase is completed, we will ask B&M and the third-party testing firm to perform a final inspection to ensure the ride exceeds all required specifications," Carowinds said.
There is no timeline yet for when the coaster might reopen. Carowinds said that it will work with the North Carolina Department of Labor's Elevator and Amusement Device Bureau to finalize those plans following all private third-party inspections.
Carowinds also said that it will add new procedures to its regular ride inspections "to promptly identify and address future potential issues.
"These new measures will include the regular use of drones outfitted with cameras to access and inspect hard-to-reach areas," the park said.
No one was injured when the crack developed on the ride, which was closed immediately on June 30 after the crack became visible to park guests and employees.
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Why not leave it as a crack - it was performing well and it makes the ride soooooooooo Much more exciting.. (JK)
@Russell Meyer, totally agree. that is some speedy repair work for a pretty hefty structure. and yeah, the major media coverage put a huge negative spotlight on the ride and the park so i'm sure they're anxious to get this fixed asap...but dang!
Without overstating the obvious, I’m just glad that this was discovered before any sort of tragedy occurred. And I agree with @Russell: props to the park and Cedar Fair for acknowledging the problem and being so forthright about the looming repairs rather than trying to deflect and put a spin on it.
I'm pretty surprised by the timeline of this, not because of the speed with which the new support is being fabricated (it's a large but relatively simple piece, after all), but instead by how quickly the investigation seems to have gone. I'd written this ride off for at least the summer, but it sounds very plausible it could potentially return to service as soon as early August. Presumably this means it was an isolated issue with that particular support column that for some reason was missed by maintenance, and the park feels confident that more stringent procedures are sufficient to ensure such a thing doesn't happen again.
From an insider at Clermont, this is a rush order which will produce a much thicker column and connecting piece.
They installed the new support column TODAY - just 2 weeks after the shut down. AMAZING!!!
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It's pretty amazing that they will have a massive custom piece of structural steel fabricated and delivered from Ohio in the span of a week.
I wonder if the expediency of this is because of the high profile nature of the coaster (and incident), or if B&M's steel fabrication plant just hasn't had much to do this year - indicative of a more concerning trend within the business of a serious slowdown in the addition of new coasters over the past 5-10 years.
Nevertheless, kudos to everyone involved here and the relative transparency of the process to insure the ride is safe when repairs are completed.