Swiss builder of Fury 325 coaster arrives at Carowinds as cracked pillar probe expands
The investigation and repair of a fractured support column on one of the world’s largest roller coasters expanded in Charlotte Wednesday as the Swiss company that made Fury 325 arrived at Carowinds.
Bolliger & Mabillard Consulting Engineers Inc., the company that designed and built Fury 325 which opened in 2015, said one of its representatives is at the 407-acre amusement park that straddles both North and South Carolina.
A park visitor spotted the cracked pillar shifting as a coaster full of riders went by five days ago, even though Carowinds says it does daily inspections of all rides. The ride has been shut down since that time.
PHOTOS: More images of Carowinds cracked roller coaster before it was shut down
“We will continue to work closely with Carowinds to determine the cause, the repair and the reopening of the coaster,” Bolliger & Mabillard said in a statement Tuesday to The Charlotte Observer. “Please rest assured that safety is our top priority.”
Carowinds declined to comment on Wednesday. Carowinds’ parent company Cedar Fair, based in Ohio, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
About roller coaster designer Bolliger & Mabillard
Based in Monthey, in southwest Switzerland, Bolliger & Mabillard was founded in 1988. The company invented the patented “No Floor Inverted Coaster” and installed the first one — Batman The Ride at Six Flags Great America — in 1992, according to the company’s website.
Bolliger & Mabillard has built 124 roller coasters worldwide, according to Roller Coaster Database. The company also built other Carowinds roller coasters, including Intimidator, Vortex and Afterburn.
North Carolina Department of Labor’s Elevator and Amusement Device Bureau inspectors also were on site starting Monday to investigate Fury 325’s cracked pillar that was reported by a visitor on Friday.
What happened to the Fury 325 coaster?
Fury 325, which opened in March 2015, features a 1.2-mile track with three 32-passenger open air trains.
The “giga coaster” reaches a height of 325 feet before the coaster begins a descent at an 81-degree angle. Top speeds are 95 mph. And it’s been named the best steel roller coaster in the world for six years in a row by industry publication Amusement Today.
On June 25, Carowinds celebrated on social media the roller coaster’s 500,000th rider of the season.
But a few days later, on June 30, a video by park visitor Jeremy Wagner shows riders going over a fractured pillar. Her reported the cracked column to the fire department and the ride was shut down nearly an hour later, Observer news partner WSOC reported.
Carowinds technicians inspect each ride daily, looking at the ride’s mechanical, structural and electronic components, according to Carowinds. It’s unclear why Carowinds staff had not spotted the crack before a guest noticed it or how many people rode the coaster after the crack had formed.
On July 1, Tiffany Collins Newton of Shelby posted a photo she took June 24, noticing a smaller crack in the same pillar.
On Monday, an N.C. Labor Department spokesperson said “the ride has not been problematic in the past.” Fury 325 was inspected Feb. 23 by a state official, and found no violations, Observer news partner WSOC reported.
Also on Monday, Jim Seay, president of Baltimore-based Premier Rides, told The Charlotte Observer that such a fracture is rare. He did not believe any lives were in danger because rides are designed with redundancies to address potential failures.
Despite being a competitor Bolliger & Mabillard, Seay called the company “a gold-standard producer of equipment to the highest standards.”
The construction of Fury 325
Fury 325 cost an estimated $30 million to build, not including some taxpayer help with the land it sits on.
Some 4.3 million pounds of steel were used to make it, Mike Fehnel, then Carowinds general manager, said in 2015. The ride has a 6,602-foot-long track.
Ohio-based Clermont Steel Fabricators is known for making Bolliger & Mabillard roller coasters. On Wednesday, president Daniel Crumbaker said the company is not part of the repair, and declined further comment.
In 2014, an eight-man fabricating and welding crew from Mosley Erecting Co. in Richburg, S.C., assembled sections of the coaster’s track.
Mosley Erecting installed other rides at Carowinds including two other roller coasters Intimidator and Top Gun, now called Afterburn, as well as Windseeker and Drop Zone, now called Drop Tower.
A woman who answered the phone on Wednesday at Mosley Erecting said they are not commenting.
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