CONSTRUCTION UPDATE: Tidal Twist Coaster At Columbus Zoo

Last week, the Columbus Zoo shocked the amusement industry announcing their second roller coaster, Tidal Twist.

The ride, manufactured by Zamperla, is a standard Twister 420STD coaster. A unique feature of this ride is the cars becoming unlocked for the entire second half of the ride, causing the cars to free spin. The ride has a family-friendly height requirement of just 42″ to ride with an adult, or 48″ to ride alone.

Today, we made a visit to the park to see how construction progress was going. As you can see in the images below, the process is happening at a very rapid pace and the land is quickly taking it’s new shape.

The site of the Redwood Falls log flume is still being cleared out. While most of the site has been flattened, footings from the former ride still remain. To prevent any erosion of the site, temporary retaining walls have been installed.

Markers have been placed all over the midways leading up to the construction site. These markers show the current location of utility lines, future location of utility lines, and future excavation sites.

Markers stretch all around the site. These two markers indicate a water line and potential excavation.

The Zamperla Twister coaster is notable in it’s design for having beams connect the column supports at the base of the structure. To ensure proper set up of the ride, the land must be cleared out, and stable soil/bedrock must be reached to provide proper bearing loads at the footings. The station for the former log flume has been marked for demolition.

Another view of the cleared out site. Ongoing work is focused on the construction of the ride’s foundations.

With the demolition of the log flume, much of the area has to be resurveyed to ensure that accurate information is given to the contractors.

While the site is appearing to take the shape of the ride’s footprint, there is still much work that is needed to be done. A Komatsu PC88MR-10 Hydraulic Excavator has been brought in to expedite the process (shown above).

To ensure the surface is flat, a compactor is used to flatten the land. A filled in soil bore test can be seen off to the right. This can be seen with many coaster projects, as previously observed with the construction of Kings Island’s Orion.

The ride will be located prominently at the front of Adventure Cove, across from the seal and sea lion habitat. (see the star below)

With the opening of the coaster, the Columbus Zoo will hold the record for most coasters in a zoo within the United States (2) — the other being the Zoo’s classic Sea Dragon wooden roller coaster. Another interesting stat is once Tidal Twist opens, this will make Columbus the home of oldest and the newest coaster in Ohio — until the next is built of course…

Tidal Twist will be included as part of Gold Membership plans and ZooMore ride wristband system as well as individual tickets. It is expected to debut this June.

For tickets and more information, visit the Columbus Zoo website by clicking here.

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