King's Dominion I-305 Closed for Remainder of 2013 Season
Kings Dominion: Due to mechanical problems, I-305 will be closed for the remainder of the 2013 operating season.
From Kat Olson
Posted August 8, 2013 at 5:30 AM
Sad news to report. Looks like I-305 will stay closed for the remainder of the 2013 season. On July 9, the lift motor had a major malfunction and seized up. Luckily no riders were injured. But as a result of this mechanical failure, the cable lift is no longer operational. Intamin officials visited KD the week of July 24 and determined that a complete rebuild of the lift motor, assembly, and lift cable were necessary. All these parts were designed and manufactured especially for I-305 and had an expected operating life of at least 10 years. Before any of these parts are remanufactured, Intamin must review the design and manufacture of the original motor to identify any flaws, determine what caused the problem and ensure the problem is resolved before the new parts are installed. It is estimated this process will take 3 - 4 months and installation will take place by January 2014. The ride will need to be extensively tested before it reopens to the general public. We are hopeful I-305 will be operating in time for Opening Day of the 2014 season.
KD and Intamin regret any inconvenience this may cause our visitors.
From James Rao
Posted August 7, 2013 at 9:42 PM
Yet another high profile, record breaking, Intamin coaster has nothing but problems. Pathetic. Consider the fact that Volcano, the best coaster in the park, goes 101 at least 4-5 times a day, every day, and now I-305 is down for the count (again) - Kings Dominion just can't keep its signature rides open. Maybe Cedar Fair should stop contracting with Intamin for a few years...? Dominator never seems to have issues, does it? B&M FTW, Cedar Fair.
Big surprise...Intamin really needs to get their act together, and I hope parks really put the screws to them for selling unreliable attractions. This is not the first high profile Intamin botch (it's not even the first on this coaster). All of their hydraulic launch coasters have had major issues at one point or another, Maverick had it's much-publicised heartline roll removed before it even opened, Volcano had to operate its first full season with 8-person trains, and the list goes on and on.
Intamin makes some of the most intense coasters on the planet, but it doesn't do parks any service if they're broken more than they're running. Eventually parks will just give Intamin the heave-ho, and insist that they build more reliable, structurally-sound coasters.
I agree. Itmain needs to improve on their coasters safety wise.
Going to Puerto Rico today!
Oh yes, that's huge when a park has their best and newest rides break down. Everyone goes to the parks to ride their best and newest rides, so when one of them is down it's not good. Let's hope this coaster is up and running for good next season. I heard it's a great ride and hope to ride it in the next year or two.
It is a great coaster, particularly after the reprofiling done after its first season. However, the fact that a similar lift motor on El Toro broke in the past couple of weeks, it just lends creedence to the fact that Intamin does not put reliability high on their list of priorities when designing theme park attractions. Considering Milennium Force had a similar failure a year or two ago, forcing it to be shut down for over a month, any Intamin coaster using a cable lift system shoudl be supplied with a backup motor. Hersheypark should be on the phone right now getting that backup for SkyRush.
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