For the first time in their history, Busch Gardens of Williamsburg, Virginia will be adding a wooden coaster. The ride, named InvadR, will open in April 2017 in the New France section of the park. It is also the first wooden coaster to come to Virginia since Kings Dominion’s Hurler in 1994. Wooden Coaster technology has come so far since then, so if you thought Hurler was rough, you’ll be blown away by how smooth InvadR will be! Great Coasters International will be constructing the ride, keeping it smooth for years to come.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the ride, you can check out the park released animated point of view video here:
Looks pretty fun, doesn’t it? Lets run through some stats real quick:
- 74 foot drop
- 9 airtime hills
- Max speed of 48 mph
- 2 tunnels (one of which over the first drop, the other at the bottom of the first drop)
- 42” height requirement, making it perfect for families
- 96,000 bolted connections
- Over 10,000 pounds of nails (5.4 tons!)
- 360,000 pounds of steel (though the ride is a wooden coaster, it uses a steel frame to reduce seasonal maintenance)
- 10,000 cubic feet of lumber (which does not include building the walls and roofs!)
- 2,500 cubic yards of concrete
By no means is building a roller coaster an easy task. The park is closed to the public till mid March, so in the meantime crews are hard at work to get this thing ready for the Spring! As of this past week, Busch Gardens was gracious enough to invite members of the working media to tour the construction site and interview key people involved in the rides creation. You can check out the full tour here:
...and interviews from those building the ride, here:
It really was a fantastic event and it was so cool to get up close and personal with the ride, from point of views that the public will never be able to see. As you probably noticed, the drop is set to be enclosed with a tunnel soon, so this was one of the last times we were able to see what the actual drop looks like!
I’ve been following the progress of this ride ever since it’s debut, so it’s amazing to see how far construction has come. It was back in March that the ride was announced, meaning visitors could check out InvadR progress all throughout the summer. I did my best to document the progress on a month-to-month basis, and it still amazes me how far they’ve come. See for yourself!
Even just the differences between the January update and the update we got to see just a few days ago is astonishing. The closer we get to Spring, the more and more I can’t wait to get on it. In no way is it going to be the greatest wooden coaster out there- it’s not meant to be. As you heard from the interviews above, InvadR will be perfect for kids looking to ride their first major steel coaster, but will still be enjoyed by those who’ve been riding coasters for years. GCI has done some amazing rides in the past, so I have full faith that InvadR will be a great addition to Busch Gardens, and be thrilling families for years to come.
-Taylor
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