TALL Footers on Superman @ Six Flags America

I was just wondering why the footers were so tall on Superman and probably on some other rides as well. These are 2 pictures of them: http://www.coastergallery.com/SF/SFA19.html and http://www.rcdb.com/installationgallery699.htm?Picture=7 here.

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Corey
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Corey - take a closer look at those pics...you'll find your answer.

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"Outside of a dog, a man's best friend is a book. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx

built on top of water, water isnt the best stuff for pouring foundations in thus larger footings are needed im guessing?

No, I believe that is a flood area
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Veck
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Im also thinking that since DL's is identical to it, they may have used the same specs for the supports. Its alot easier to just make tall footers than to re-engineer all of the support structures.

First, they're not footers. They are Spice Girl shoes.

Second, tons of coasters were not designed for the land they sit on. The top of the footers represent where the ground was designed to be. Instead of paying god knows how much more to fit the coaster to ground, they just extend the footers to go down as deep as necessary.

I dunno, this is hard to explain. Anyone get me?

Yes, Mamoosh I noticed that they were built over water. But so is this: http://www.coastergallery.com/CP/37.html and it doesn't have tall footers,or do they go deep under water?

CRVeck, if thats a flood area, then wouldn't the track be submerged on the pull-out of the first drop (look at first picture)? If so, there would be no need for those high footers because you can't have the track under water and run the ride because the water is only halfway up the footers.

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Corey
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MF-19
Top Thrill Dragster Coming Soon

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A bit off topic but wow that coaster is so much uglier that SFDL's version.

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SFDL's is right next to a nice lake and is right next to the pond. Or else maybe its because we don't have a flying coaster, LIM coaster, or a great wood coaster, distracting us like SFA has. Yep, thats it ;)

Oh and congrats Corey thats post 69 for you! ;)

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*** This post was edited by Ride of Steel 2/23/2003 9:40:36 PM ***
*** This post was edited by Ride of Steel 2/23/2003 9:41:10 PM ***

many coasters are planned to be installed on flat or nearly flat land.

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never met a coaster I didn't ride (except Junior Geminii) :(

My guess would be that because SFDL's is over water at that part, the SFA's version has the same footer arrangement (as mentioned by someone else already).

Compare the footers under the helix:

http://www.rcdb.com/installationgallery541.htm?Picture=7

http://www.rcdb.com/installationgallery699.htm?Picture=3

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*** This post was edited by ApolloAndy 2/23/2003 11:04:08 PM ***

I believe the answer to the original question is that water is no longer there and the trench it is filled in with dirt, you wouldn't want steel to be buried in the ground. Batwing is now behind Superman. Perhaps SFA had planned to fill in the trench when a new ride was built and thats why the footers were made so tall.
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Corey - it has nothing to do with building over water. Sam has the right answer.

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"Outside of a dog, a man's best friend is a book. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx

Ever notice how many SLCs sport those footers all *on the level*...same deal.

P.S. to 'Moosh...go to bed, tomorrow is a school day...;) or, watch Cartoon Network's Adult Swim...:). Don't think I'd ever be able to adjust to a West-Coast TV schedule, LOL...
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Its also cheaper and easier to lay out. If the footers are all the same height, then you just pop them with a laser or a transit and away you go. If the footers all varied with the terrain, then you have to shoot each one for height, which wastes time. Generally speaking contractors' and engineers' time is more valuable than a couple yards of concrete.

What with the recent snow melt in the region & the flood prone nature of S:ROS's site I wouldn't be surprised if the pull out from the drop is completely submerged by now.

There's even more bad news for the region I'm afraid,come wednesday evening into thursday we are expecting yet another major snowstorm to bring significant accumulation to the area.

I could just Imagine what SFNE's S:RoS's first tunnel is looking like right now

*** This post was edited by SFNE Man 2/24/2003 4:18:21 PM ***

Thanks guys. I understand it now.

Ooh, and Ride of Steel thanks for the congrats lol.

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Corey
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MF-19
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