A Roller Coaster Ride FOUNDATION August/September 2019 Drilling
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Long Foundation Drilling A Roller Coaster Ride FOUNDATION August/September 2019 Drilling Case Pacific The Key at 1100 Broadway Eye on Infrastructure Nicholson Looks Back at Mandalay Bay Project ADSC IN ACTION Summer Meeting Pictorial Recap Scherzinger Drilling The Deacon 0819_FDMag_Aug-Sept.indd 1 8/22/19 9:21 AM Cover feature Long Foundation Drilling A roller Coaster Ride By Phil Paolelli, Long Foundation Drilling Co. It happened the same as it had before: a sudden, unexpected phone call, this time in March of 2018, with the voice on the other end advising that Southside Constructors was reassembling their covert construction squad for a top-secret project on the North Carolina/South Carolina border. Mission code name: Project Snake Bite. This meant it was time to return to Carowinds and have some fun! Carowinds is a 400-acre amusement park that opened in 1973 boasting dual citizenship with portions of the park located in both Charlotte, North Carolina and Fort Mill, South Carolina. With over 50 rides and attractions, Carowinds can keep young visitors and hardcore adrenaline junkies alike equally entertained. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, Carowinds is a “must see” attraction for the Carolinas and surrounding area. Long foundation Cover feature 21 Long Foundation Drilling Company (Long Foundation) was of only the specifications, geotechnical report, foundation no stranger to Carowinds Amusement Park, as this was layout and a detail sheet of the project, ensured that all the their third roller coaster in the past decade that utilized a details of Copperhead Strike would be kept under wraps drilled shaft foundation. In 2009, Long Foundation was until the official announcement was made to the public. commissioned to install a drilled shaft foundation for Carowinds’ security measures were so effective, we had the roller coaster named “Intimidator.” Intimidator was no idea what we were installing foundations for until the inspired by the late NASCAR legend and North Carolina official announcement was made in August of 2018, two native, Dale Earnhardt. Climbing a 232-foot hill before months after we began working on the project! For the racing down a 74-degree drop at 80 mph through 5,316 duration of the project, we worked under the watchful feet of track, has you going for the checkered flag in eye of children at the top of the water slide, Blackbeard’s fearless Earnhardt style, on one of the top ten, tallest, Revenge and coaster hobbyists, who took photographs steel hyper coasters in North America. in an effort to obtain as much information as they could about the new attraction. I did not have to go onsite or In 2014, Long Foundation again received the call to install call our superintendent for updates; all I had to do was a drilled shaft foundation for “Fury 325.” Fury 325 is the go on Facebook and see all the posts and construction world’s fastest and tallest steel giga coaster. Riders updates from the public. Carowinds climb a 325-foot hill and take an 81-degree stoked the fire of public interest by drop, all while reaching speeds of up to adding teasers to the construction 95 mph, for the novelty of traveling walls and increasing speculation through the two states of North about the new attraction. and South Carolina on over 1.25 miles of steel track. The 2019 season would mark the opening of Carowinds’ largest invest- Long Foundation’s previous ment to date: Blue Ridge Junction, a experience at Carowinds had themed area designed as a tribute to fostered familiarity with the the majestic landscape and vibrant kind of schedule required in the colors of the Blue Ridge Mountain construction of a new roller coaster. As region, as well as the lazy pace and innate Steve Jackson, director of Maintenance and Con- charm of the moonshine-producing culture struction at Carowinds put it, “When I found out Long that flourished there. Coiled and waiting for visitors at Foundation had submitted a comparative bid for the the center of Blue Ridge Junction would be Carowinds’ coaster foundations, I was very confident we would meet newest roller coaster, Copperhead Strike. Carowinds’ our deadlines. They understand our business and can promotion for the new coaster cautioned visitors about make things happen, despite challenging schedules. Our the copperheads found by the old, broken-down barn experience with them on Intimidator and Fury 325 as- nestled way, way back in the Blue Ridge Mountains. sured me we would be successful once again debuting Granny Byrd has been creating her delicious “jam” in that our new coaster on time.” barn for nearly 40 years; however, Granny’s “jam” has a little bite that can get you in a lot of trouble if you’re Our previous experience also prepared us for the ever caught with any of it. present, insatiable curiosity of the coaster hobbyists and the airtight security it necessitates. Although the closing Manufactured by MACK Rides GmbH & Co. KG of of an attraction and the appearance of utility paint marks Waldkirch, Germany, Copperhead Strike has the distinc- on the ground always sparks speculation about a new tion of being the first double launch roller coaster in the project, Carowinds’ requirement of signed confidentiality Carolinas. The half mile, 530-ton steel track blasts riders agreements from all parties involved, as well as the release to over 50 mph in two seconds, then launches them into Carowinds’ security measures were so effective, we had no idea for what we were installing foundations until the official announcement was made two months after we began working on the project!” 22 Long foundation Cover feature FOUNDATION DRILLING | august/September 2019 a series of fast, tight, close-to-the- ground maneuvers tangled with five head over heels inversions, the most of any double launched coaster in North America. Installation of drilled shafts at Caro- winds is always a challenge, but a tight schedule, excessive hard granite rock excavation, 46 years’ worth of utilities, granite rock, tight work space, granite rock, tight tolerances, two hurricanes—and did I mention gran- ite—collectively made Copperhead Strike a ride to remember for all involved in building it. Geologically, Carowinds is nestled in the heart of the Piedmont Phy- siographic Province. Stretching from New Jersey to central Alabama, the Piedmont Province is a complex geol- ogy comprised of numerous rock formations of differing materials and ages intermingled with one another, including the remnants of several ancient eroded mountain chains. To complicate matters, the Copperhead Strike site consisted of fills ranging in depths from 3.5 to 15 feet due to previous construction at the site that included a water park swimming pool. Residual soils consisting of sandy silts and silty sands ranged in depths from Baby 3.5 to 28.7 feet. The transitional zone Granite from residual soils and rock known as Partially Weathered Rock (PWR), is defined as residual soils exhibiting Mommy N-values in excess of 100 bpf and Granite extending to depths that range between 12.4 and 33 feet. Granite rock with recoveries ranging from 50 to 100 percent and RQD of 50 to 100 percent was encountered below the residual and PWR soils ranging in depths between 12.4 and 33 feet below ground surface. Groundwater was encountered at depths ranging between 9 and 27.5 feet. Previous coaster constructions at Carowinds were long and sprawling, with track supports spread out in a lin- ear fashion. By contrast, Copperhead Strike is a small footprint coaster with all the shafts compressed in an approximately four-acre site, a fact that required extensive planning on FOUNDATION DRILLING | august/September 2019 Long foundation Cover feature 23 Looks like it’s going to get tight rig placement and sequencing. Additionally, the shafts The ride manufacturer provides all of the design were not laid out in a traditional grid system, but rather forces. followed the alignment of the coaster’s track, meaning Deflection tolerances are usually the overriding that since the track repeatedly crossed over itself, the critical design criteria. foundation drawing evolved into nothing more than a Cyclic loading and the lifetime design ride cycles chaotic collection of circles. must be considered. Ride foundations and other nearby structure foundations should be kept isolated. The drilling of each shaft required constant oversight to ensure that utilities Each shaft was designed with different loading criteria which had to be calculated in the field to ensure each shaft and park operations were not disrupted.” had the required end-bearing and uplift-loading criteria met in the PWR and Rock as designed. Due to the highly The location chosen for Copperhead Strike meant that variable depth and type of PWR and rock, as well as the many utilities were in the footprint of construction. The different loading values assigned to each type of material, use of large pier caps over the top of each shaft instead constant inspection of the material being excavated by the allowed vital utilities that conflicted with the coaster onsite geotechnical engineer and constant communication foundations locations to be spanned. The drilling of each with the structural engineer was required. Every shaft shaft required constant oversight to ensure that utilities re-quired a 2-inch percussion drilled test hole to ensure and park operations were not disrupted. In the event a continuity of the rock. The onsite geotechnical engineers utility was discovered, shaft installation was halted until inspected the cleanliness of the shaft and the test hole the Carowinds utility team could conduct an inspection to ensure no soil seams were present in the rock below and create a plan to construct around the utility without bearing elevation.