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[sdcfan88]

Visited the park finally as of today. Grabbed lots of pictures and video of the site, the latter which I will also post up once its done processing. Some pics have things which were already seen by prior posts and known about and some that have not. They have most of the station walled up and a roof added. Saw them working on some large footers and digging out a large pit. Likely the start of a possible dive tunnel or something of that nature from what I can tell.

Full album is here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10154620136647232.1073741868.503502231&type=1&l=3790575160

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/5Jun1KVBX0k

Points of interest for speculation:
0:42, 2:45, & 3:20  Large square footers. (Assuming they are for large ride elements or inversions.)
1:17, 1:32 & 3:07 A very large square pit is being dug out. (A possible dive coaster-esque tunnel element being constructed?)

[dawsonrt]

A little bit off topic

I've heard it's a joke among employees to tell people that they're building a Dollar General or the World's Largest Dollar General

[biscuitcreek]

I had a couple ask me on Thursday if SDC was building a hotel. We were standing at the Echo Hollow entrance watching the construction. I told them it was a new ride. Then they asked if it was a new indoor ride; they want a new indoor ride (me, too).

[mhguy77]

they want a new indoor ride (me, too).

Every signature ride thats worth its salt to the entire family is a dark ride.
I agree, bring on the dark ride, covert the plunge to a dark ride, its in need of love as it is.  No need to lose the final plunge just work on the first 95% of the ride.

[Coaster]

I've been wanting a new dark ride forever. It is something SDC is definitely lacking. Maybe this new coaster has some dark ride elements but it still won't really satisfy the need for those rainy days.

[shavethewhales]

^Unfortunately there's no obvious signs that any of the coaster will be indoor... maybe a small tunnel or something could be built somewhere, but nothing in terms of actual building sized elements to go through. I have of course been pushing for more dark rides and coasters with thematic elements for a long time now... just isn't what's marketable yet I guess. I think the tide will eventually shift towards quality over quantity, and perhaps this coaster is one of the very last frontiers for "world's first".

I'm kinda surprised at how simple the roofline seems to be. The concept art showed a much more... interesting building than this giant box. We'll see what it looks like with all the details added though, but so far I'm not seeing much that is intriguing other than that this will be a big coaster.

[mhguy77]

Shave referred this to being a big coaster however I wonder how big.  A poster earlier pointed out you could see the new ride on the updated google earth file so I checked it out.  I have seen the work in person last fall and winter but on google earth when you compare space, powder keg is as big, even outlaw run has a good footprint.   Even if we use the cost of the new ride against wildfire in 2001 dollars (14 million).  With inflation I bet it would cost 20 million to build wildfire today.  The new ride also took more earth work.  Will this be a long ride or another 1 minute coaster?
What do you guys think?

[Swoosh]

I think a lot of the cost is due to how much cement they are having to use for the footers.  There's no bedrock here.  It's almost all fill, so the footers are much more beefy than if it had been built somewhere else.  FTR they ran into the same issue with PK and have had to beef up the footers retroactively over there to avoid slipping due to the fill

[cowboy]

Check this photo out of Oblivion's station. https://rcdb.com/12050.htm#p=55483 and https://rcdb.com/12050.htm#p=57506

It is similar to the set up of what is being constructed. Could we have one of these "smaller" dive coasters? Or does that just not fit with anything that has been leaked?

I could imagine an initial dive out of the station, a couple of "loops" back and forth in the valley, then a final climb and  200+ foot dive back into the station.....

I know that it doesn't fit with what we've been lead to believe, but.....could the earlier rumor of "dive" coaster actually been the real thing?

Jay

[sdcfan88]

^^ I will say these footers are deceptively large (and of course the 6 story station) which is in line with the statement saying that this will be the biggest thing ever done for the park. If you see my video you can see how big they truly are when you see one of the workers walking past them, as for Oblivion I didn't realize B&M changed their footer design from the large square ones that they usually use. (see Wildfire's) I had always thought when the B&M speculation started a couple years ago that their next coaster would be a larger version of Baron 1898 and it would have been tied into the Grand Expo. https://rcdb.com/12083.htm

However Mack does have a newer coaster type which is the Big Dipper (Lost Gravity) that they might be wanting to expand on and further develop. https://rcdb.com/aadybra https://rcdb.com/aadycfa https://rcdb.com/aadycba

[shavethewhales]

^^Assuming the Mack rumor has any validity, perhaps a comparison to Lost Gravity is more in order: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DlVqrrMr74 

Seems to be a similar width to the station.

My hunch is still that they are going to try out the spinning cars for the big marketing angle, but if that falls through and the ride is fairly unpopular after a couple seasons they could easily switch out for the wide cars. I absolutely do not expect them to do both at once.

mhguy77, even though it's a "big" coaster, it's not necessarily going to be super long. They rarely make long coasters these days. More cost efficient to focus on the big elements and let it hit the brakes hard leaving the audience wanting more. Who knows though, with block sections and potential launches or holding drops it could last a couple minutes. There are certainly a lot of footers, so who knows how much track they plan on shoving in there.

[mhguy77]

They rarely make long coasters these days. More cost efficient to focus on the big elements and let it hit the brakes hard leaving the audience wanting more.

All good points. 

[sanddunerider]

those are some great pics SDC, I will be there next weekend, looking forward to seeing the change, will take pics of course...

[mhguy77]

More cost efficient to focus on the big elements and let it hit the brakes hard leaving the audience wanting more.

Shave I wonder if this is one of the reasons behind the lack of more dark rides.  Could this be a cost issue? 
I would think that building a FITH these days would be pretty expensive.  Not that I want a new FITH but to apply that expense to a swamp monster or some such dark adventure, it may be cost prohibitive to do it and do it right.

[Swoosh]

It's all about ROI and a flashy new coaster is much easier to market than a dark ride.