Most difficult coaster construction projects

Just wondering what coaster where the most difficult to construct. Any stories?

I had a hell of time with my K'nex screaming serpent. More than a few pieces got thrown across the room.

I ended up finishing it 2 weeks behind and $2 million over budget. :)

Great Bear

Lord G, you need to have a talk with your general contractor...;)

Honestly, as difficult as ANY coaster has been in terms of weaving in/around rides (CE, for example)....can ANYTHING compete with Son Of Beast for sheer magnitude and *over-the-top-ness*....

Probably my second choice would be Papa....

I know for a fact that BoulderDash was a challenge logistically because of its mountainside location. Just surveying for the ride had to be difficult enough with all the trees and boulders in the way. Then to pump concrete and get supplies, men, and equipment up to the actual worksite becomes an almost daunting task.

Anytime you have to deal with irregular terrain with/and/or existing obstacles to deal with, the project becomes more challenging. Especially when there is no easy access to the site.

Wood - anything else is an imitation

I know Medusa at Six Flags Mexico was very hard to design at least due to space constraints and many underground utilities.

Thunder Dolphin in Japan looks like it was a tough one to put up, only because it is built in the middle of a city on top of a building.

Superman Krypton Coaster because it is around cliffs.

How about the Great Nor'Easter? Looks like a tough one being constructed around water slides and all.

All of the coasters at CP have a certain degree of difficulty due to the bone chilling winds blowing off of Lake Erie 200-400 feet in the air.

Nemesis at Alton Towers. It has so many tunnels and holes in the ground that half the ride is underground. Its a terrain coaster so I think thats the hardest to construct.

X Marks The Spiizot

One of the hardest to build was Phantom's Revenge since it is situated on a such a steep slope. I can't imagine the orginal Phantom was a walk in the park (sorry about the pun) either.

I agree with Boulderdash.

Or if you want to get historical, Cleveland Puritas Springs Cyclone

[url="http://home.nyc.rr.com/johnmiller/Cyclone_photos.html" target="_blank">http://home.nyc.rr.com/johnmiller/Cyclone_photos.html

I agree with Boulder Dash being difficult to build...

Another one which is currently being built which I would imagine to be difficult would be Storm Runner at HP. I mean, It interacts with so many of the other rides and stuff in the park. While we're in Hershey, i think Great Bear would've been hard. Its side by side to Super Dooper Looper and on top of the log flume and flies over the midway and over the water. There are some supports on Great Bear I have never ever seen on any other inverted coaster.

And Dorneys new one for 2005 sounds like its gonna be difficult, going below ground level 5 times and right next to the lake. I think most coasters over water would be hard, like Anaconda at PKD.....I wondr how deep the water really is though.......

Thunderhead because of the surrounding hills and just the complexity of the layout

I guess terrain coasters are the hardest to construct. I always wondered about Dragon Mountain at Marine Land. That is a some construction marvel.

From a design standpoint my walnut brain thinks deulling dragons was the hardest to design and execute. I don't even want to think of the dynamic equations they used to make sure that two coasters with two separate layouts interact.

Obviously they had a lot of problems with Son Of Beast since it partially collapsed during construction.

I would also think that Hoosier Hurricane and Cornball express were special challenges because of how much track is over water. The tight turns both verticaly and horizontally on LoCoSuMo were probably a challenge too.

I got to listen to an interesting engineering seminar on the construction of the two 'new' coasters at SFNO this year. The entire park, including the two new coasters and the new park section, is built on a swamp. Everything from footers to the midways at the park have several thousand pilings. It may not look like anything special, but a lot of complex construction and design went into this park.

Difficult coaster construction projects:

The Big One - practically no space and too many rides in the park.

Jubilee Odyseey - Very unstable ground, hence the unbelivable price tag.

Ive always heard it was quite difficult finding good spots for suppourts on Phantoms Revenge in the ravine area because of erosion and the like.