"Car Park Coasters"

[ciallkennett]

This is something that has been puzzling me for ages now, so I'll ask it.

What is it with parks and building on top or directly next-to existing car parks? I notice the trend specifically in the US (Green Lantern is a notable example at the moment), but what with talk of Alton potentially building on car-parked areas, it's left me wondering a few additional things:

1) Is it any easier to build on concrete such as a car-park than a grassy field? I'd imagine that with all the landscaping that'd need to be done with a grassy area as well as unstable ground, it would cost a lot more to build on grassy areas.

2) What is it specifically with parks in the US? I know that US parks tend to minimalise themeing on many rides, so "plonking" them on a car park wouldn't matter much. With some parks I can understand that space can be an issue, so "plonking" a ride on old, disused or overspill car parks is a simple solution. One thing that I do ponder is why they a lot of the time make no effort to remove the existence of the car-park that remained there beforehand and watched several POVs of many US coasters, you can still see old car park markings - off putting surely?

I'm just curious that's all Heck, I may have started to answer my own questions...

 

[jokerman]

For smaller rides I'd imagine it means less foundations are required, which is going to save you a lot of money. And I don't think parks care that much about the markings, not many people will. If there's no theme there anyway, it won't matter too much.

 

[Snoo]

^That.. and space might be limited in some directions.. so plunking down on a parking lot saves time, money, and effort.

PS: GL isn't built on a car park.. it is built on the former site of GASM.. which was kinda built partially on a car park.

 

[ECG]

OK. let's start the whole what is & what isn't a car park coaster argument all over again. :roll:

 

[furie]

I think it's simply a space thing. Unless the coaster is foundation-less, the supports will require as much effort on a car park as they would on a grass field. When you're sticking up a coaster, you can't assume that the people who laid the car park did a good enough job of ground work to the depth required for footers.

I suspect that most parks when the start out have a "we expect this number of visitors" and build a car park to manage that figure. As figures of attendees raise and lower, then the parking spaces become out dated. Places will build huge new lots away from the park (Alton and SFNE come to mind here, but SFNE may always have been that far out), or find themselves with constant spare parking. It just makes sense to use that space.

Alton car parking used to be in two places. Coaster Corner and behind Towers street (the "employee" entrance between Alton and the main entrance now used to be the main gates (I think).

Alton have all the grass areas for parking, plus the site beyond the hotels - they will have bought/acquired/whatever that land for car parking, but also for other use.

It just makes sense to use land you own for things that are easily move (customer vehicles possibly being the easiest thing in the world for a park to move in a closed season ).

 

[Snoo]

OK. let's start the whole what is & what isn't a car park coaster argument all over again. :roll:

Well this kinda IS the thread for it after all.

 

[ciallkennett]

Cheers for the responses guys. I suppose it's kind of what I thought before I asked, but just wanted clarification from people who are more likely to know.

And this is where I leave the thread before being sucked into discussions about what is/isn't a CPC...

 

[Waffleman]

I found Scream at Magic Mountain painful to ride, because it was a very good rollercoaster, but seeing old car-park spaces below the track was massively off-putting and actually took a lot away from the experience.
For me, anyway.

 

[Thekingin64]

Well, although it isn't a coaster, I noticed the go karts at Hafan y Mor Haven park is on an old car park.

When it is something like go karts it would make sense to build on a disused car park as it would be cheaper than laying down new tarmac somewhere.

 

[El Patricko]

The car park is in no stretch of the imagination going to be a substitue for piling and correct foundation arrangments. Everything from the type of Concrete to the depth is completely different. To build a coaster you would have to take out the previous base/hardcore/sand and dig some proper foundations.

Alton towers will not build a coaster on the carparking area without landscaping the area once they're done putting it together, i dont know this but i trust that they will (if it ends up there)