Prowler Construction 11/13/2008

So Jeff and I made plans today to go out and see what's up with Prowler construction, and much progress has been made since last time we visited. On a previous episode you might remember that the helix and return run had just begun, as well as track had just barely began appearing. Well now we not only have footers for the the main drop, we have a main drop going up as we speak. These guys are quick!

So to start us off, lets take a look at the bent ready to go up.


Only a few minutes later the bent is hooked to the crane and begins going up. We were estimating this is about 30-40 feet high at this point in time.


The bent is lifted in place.


A close up as the bent is put into final position. The wind was blowing pretty good while we were there so this could not have been an easy job!


Going down hill into the mud a bit, you can see the elevation change looking up at the first drop. Also as mentioned previously with Prowler, GCI is using a somewhat altered version of its slab footers. You can see here just how deep the footers will be for the transfer track, brake area and drop (They will cross in this area).


Doing a 180, here is where all those holes will connect to, the rest of the outbound run.


With wood structure of the drop now in the picture, the layout of the station and drop makes a little bit more sense. Here is the retaining wall we saw under construction a few weeks ago. To the right (at the top of the wall) will be the station, lift and first drop. There will be a bridge crossing the creek with the queue line and Prowler Plaza on the left.


Here are the footers waiting on the return run, you can see the creek off to the right.


A little farther out on the return run, you can see the structure is making its way back. This shot also shows the elevation change fairly well too.


A reverse of the same thing.



This is what we all want, Wood! Here is the return run making some definite progress from previous weeks. Notice how close to the ground the structure is in this shot.


A great shot of some banking and twisting action on the return run. Looks like nothing boring there!


A beautiful shot of one of the crossovers, in this case into the helix. On the bottom is the inbound run, on the top is the beginning of the outbound (return) run. You can also see the track bed being built here too. Next we will take a closer look.



We are going to take the fast track back to the very beginning as we finish up this tour. When we first arrived at the site this bent was just beginning to be laid out. Here the bent is almost finished. Pretty quick if you ask me.


Waiting for the end of the day the sun finally decided to peak out behind the trees. Allowing some beautiful final sunset shots. Here is a shot of the first drop again, in the background is Boomerang and Mamba.



A beautiful silhouette of the construction workers still hard at work, even this close to dusk. You can also see the 2nd hill of Mamba in the background.


One final shot, showing them detaching the crane from the bent.