Alton Towers | The Smiler | Gerstlauer Infinity

[Martyn B]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

The leaking pipe was said to be an issue amongst other reasons for the delay.

By who? Did Alton confirm this? The only people who know the real reason for the delay, is Alton (regardless of what TT say)

What is the point of having the deliveries of track if there is no where to put them easily or they are just not needed currently?

Firstly, the car parks at Alton are HUGE, there's plenty of space. And secondly, "not currently needed"? They dont go straight from the lorry to the construction site. Think back to before this went vertical, there was a lot of track just lying about, so "not currently needed" doesn't really work. And you only have to look at how this has been built like a jigsaw to realise that they've been waiting for parts. Why else would they build SO many odd pieces?

 

[roomraider]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

I kind of assumed the Jigsaw like building was due to site access and the places you can get a crane. with so much track in such a confined space you would have to build in a set order to make sure track you put up wouldn't get in the way of track you still need to put up.
Of course this could be just me but it makes sense in my head.

On a side note - I hate to think how many Toolbox Talks, Health And Safety Forms and Safety Analysis' had to be performed for this. It takes hours just to get approval to use a crane on board on of the ships I work on.

 

[Kebab]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92A4JEAoU_k&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

Wasn't so bothered about the publicity, but more bothered that they mentioned it Smiler opening in May twice in this video. So I reckon it's still a high possibility with these announcements.

 

[marc]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

It better open in May or I probably won't be able to go until 2014 and by then the effects won't work.

 

[Smithy]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

It should easily make May, it's only the start of April.

If this does not start testing in the next 2 weeks I will be shocked.

No chance, and I'll gladly be quoted if proven wrong lol.

Be surprised if the trackwork is complete within the next two weeks tbh, I know there's a thing about the lifts going up quite quickly but there's two and one isn't vertical.

Also imagine they'll have to do a pull through at some point for clearance-checking and that might take a chunk of time too.

 

[Rollercoasters4Life]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

The leaking pipe was said to be an issue amongst other reasons for the delay.

By who? Did Alton confirm this? The only people who know the real reason for the delay, is Alton (regardless of what TT say)

If you looked at the site back when they were digging out the pit you can easily see the pipe leaking into the hole - several times they had pumps on site to get rid of the water. That is only one reason in a bad closed season for the park - a major one being the weather also. One rumour was that there was problems with the land, although I don't know how true that is.

What is the point of having the deliveries of track if there is no where to put them easily or they are just not needed currently?

Firstly, the car parks at Alton are HUGE, there's plenty of space. And secondly, "not currently needed"? They dont go straight from the lorry to the construction site. Think back to before this went vertical, there was a lot of track just lying about, so "not currently needed" doesn't really work. And you only have to look at how this has been built like a jigsaw to realise that they've been waiting for parts. Why else would they build SO many odd pieces?

Yes the car parks are huge but what is the difference between this and Th13teen/Sub Terra construction? A fair few pieces for Th13teen & Sub Terra were kept on the car parks away from the front gate and nearer to Forbidden Valley & Car Park J (I think that is it, the furthest one away) whereas for The Smiler, the track was kept in the staff car park and the bus/coach car park - the odd bit did stray near to the field car park near the hotels but I think this was because they had no other place to put it as it was Scarefest/Fireworks for the Towers (a very busy time). Once the park had closed, more track came and was put on the coach car park.

Maybe Alton had problem with ground works and with things against them (weather) that they decided to tell Gerstlauer to halt the deliveries of any more track as they didn't want any new track anywhere other than the coach/minibus car park (where it only currently is stored) - as its further to transport the track to the construction site once it is needed.

It has been built as a 'Jigsaw' as you put it because it has to be built like that. The actual construction site is very tight and needs to be built in a specific order so that the crane can easily installed the supports track & theming. Not every coaster is built from station to brake run in following order. At no point have they been 'waiting' for track to arrive either. Proof being the lift hills, they have only just arrived and if they needed them because they were waiting as you put it then they would of been installed today - the fact is they haven't been waiting as the footers and the trench itself is still being prepared. Concrete should of been either poured today, or tomorrow for the base of the trench as they have only just completed putting in the rebar as shown in this picture:

(Thanks to Fred_Delicious from TTF)

The ride is supposed to be open already, and I can hardly see the reason for the delay being because Gerstlauer are late with track fabrication. The other reasons why it is delayed could be both down to Gerstlauer or Alton but not because of track fabrication as you were hinting.

 

[Ethan]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

^ Gonna have to go with Martyn on this one, as you're logic is kinda flawed.

 

[Dar]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

Just a copy & paste of my post from TST:

Being the horrifyingly sad git that I am, I thought I'd have a looky-loo around the HSE website for any notices regarding RITA and the whole cable snap tunnel shenanigans.

Spoiler

I didn't find any.

I did, however, find these two notices served on the Smiler's construction company in October last year. Linky link

They are Immediate Prohibition Notices, meaning an inspector has found something that they think will result in serious injury if allowed to be done.

The description of the activity for both notices reads:

PN - Failure to provide trench supports, box's or battering to ensure that the sewer pipe trench (or part of it) did not collapse.

PN - Failure to provide supports or battering to ensure that the faces of sections of the main excavation (or part of it) at the site of the new ride did not collapse.

This would go some way to explain the delay. They would have had to find a different way to excavate the areas that would satisfy the inspector and then complete the new work. Of course no work could be done while these notices were in effect!

Does beg the question of how they could have overlooked these, they seem like simple things to get done.

"Digging a hole? We better make sure the sides don't fall in on us!"
"Nah, leave it. It'll be right"?

Apparently there was a 4 week delay because of this, but I'm not certain of that.

As for the track, I imagine it wasn't being delivered and stored because it wasn't necessary. Once it was confirmed as being delayed until May, they probably held off on track delivery because it simply wasn't needed on site?

 

[Nemesis of oblivion]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

Does anyone think JLS will be there to perform on The Smiler's opening day? Like The Swarm had bands on it's opening day.

 

[Kebab]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

^I'd rather have another delay than let that happen.

I can't believe we're almost 300 pages through the thread and the track is still unfinished. Just a thought, is this the longest construction thread we've had?

 

[Rollercoasters4Life]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

^ Gonna have to go with Martyn on this one, as you're logic is kinda flawed.

Go on then, enlighten us all as to why. From that long post all you can say is that without explanation....nice! :lol:

Just made this to illustrate what still needs to be done on site as of 2nd April 2013. Also labelled the legs so people can understand which ones are which.

(Click for larger image! Stuff in orange - unsure if still happening at the current time)

 

[Wildmouse695]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

Great diagram, thanks for taking the time to do that. It has helped me understand it much clearer

 

[furie]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

It should easily make May, it's only the start of April.

If this does not start testing in the next 2 weeks I will be shocked.

No chance, and I'll gladly be quoted if proven wrong lol.

Be surprised if the trackwork is complete within the next two weeks tbh, I know there's a thing about the lifts going up quite quickly but there's two and one isn't vertical.

Also imagine they'll have to do a pull through at some point for clearance-checking and that might take a chunk of time too.

Concrete should of been either poured today, or tomorrow for the base of the trench as they have only just completed putting in the rebar as shown in this picture:

I've bunched these two together for a reason. There's a LOT of rebar sitting in the car park waiting to go in still. Footers and all kinds of other bits. The ride won't start testing until they've all gone in and been left to set, never mind getting the track vertical. There are a lot of gaps in the track as the excellent diagram above shows.

What it doesn't show is that the station is nowhere near complete either. Before this starts testing, they've got a long way to go and the area is ground zero at the moment. I think they'll be lucky to have finished the track in the next two weeks, then they may test while the finish off the station and ground works, but I don't know. I certainly think they'll be pushing hard to get everything up, tested and safe by late May. I'm with Smithy that I just can't see it, though I'll be happy to be proven wrong.

When you see the site, you can understand just how much work there is left across the board.

Construction seems to have happened in the most sensible order to get the park open. So the areas close to Enterprise and above the toilets went up first. That meant those two areas didn't need to be blocked off when the season started. The rest will go in according to access, but they do seem to be working from both the Oblivion side and the toilet ends now, coming back towards the lift hill. Oddly, the brake run is in place, so they will probably come back out through that corner.

 

[marc]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

Ok take back what I said, I had no idea that they still needed to set footers.

Still have over a month to get it open though

 

[spicy]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

Looking at that diagram (which is great btw RC4L) I just love how Alton left out those inversions from the plans.

Was the only reason to do that literally just to throw people off the scent that they were going for the inversions record? Which we were going to know as soon as it started to go vertical anyway!

Quite a risk on their behalf as well, given the history particulary in that area of the park with certain locals.

 

[Smithy]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

Didn't they say at the time that area of the park wasn't subject to certain planning restrictions and as such they weren't required by law to provide detailed plans of the ride, but did so anyway? Sure I seem to recall people discussing it possibly throwing people off the scent or similar. Far too many pages to go digging.

 

[furie]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

Yep, that's the badger Smithy. They claim that as the area already had a ride and was part of an open area in terms of putting in new "attractions" that it didn't need the entire detailed plans to go in for approval. Only the buildings needed permission (though they obviously have still had building/construction inspectors on site ).

So it's allowed them to get away with stuff that wasn't on those plans. Clever buggers!

 

[spicy]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

It's great how Alton are always so secretive and always keep people guessing whenever they build a major new attraction and really go out their way to do so, these 'fake' plans are a perfect example of that.

Most other parks announce what they are building straight away with everything revealed at an official announcement. Smiler still hasn't been announced as the world record holder for inversions!

 

[Twn114]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

It's great how Alton are always so secretive and always keep people guessing whenever they build a major new attraction and really go out their way to do so, these 'fake' plans are a perfect example of that.

Most other parks announce what they are building straight away with everything revealed at an official announcement. Smiler still hasn't been announced as the world record holder for inversions!

I am really surprised that Alton havent given away what the 'secret element' is in some TV advert or silly Merlin PR stunt already!

I must say though, kudos for Alton for managing to make a ride that beats the inverson record, which isn't an absolute onslaught of inversions (it kind of is but not on the same scale as Colossus!), lets just hope that the 'secret element' doesnt ruin what is looking like a descent merlin ride!

 

[Martyn B]

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1

I wouldn't have said the plans were fake, more misleading.

If you look at the layout from the plans, you can easily see the 13 visable inversions now that we know about them.