The cracked support pillar that closed the Fury 325 roller coaster at Carowinds will be removed and replaced, the Charlotte, North Carolina park announced Thursday.
In a press release, Carowinds said the replacement column is being fabricated by the ride’s manufacturer, Bolliger & Mabillard, and is expected to be delivered to the park next week.
“In partnership with B&M, we have performed a battery of tests to identify the cause of the fracture, which appears to have formed along a weld line in the steel column,” Carowinds said in its statement.
Once the new support pillar is in place, Carowinds said it will conduct “an extensive series of tests to ensure the safety and integrity of the coaster.” According to the park, that will include accelerometer tests, operating the ride for 500 cycles, and having B&M and another outside testing firm inspect the ride. The North Carolina Department of Labor’s Elevator and Amusement Device Bureau will also have to sign off on the attraction before it reopens.
Carowinds also said that it will expand its inspection capabilities to “include the regular use of drones outfitted with cameras to access and inspect hard-to-reach areas.”
Fury 325 at Carowinds, has now been shut down thanks to a visitor who spotted this massive crack in the support beam. Huge shout out to Jeremy Wagner for getting the video and telling Carowinds about it. #wcnc pic.twitter.com/vqJU2J0upL
— Brad Panovich (@wxbrad) July 1, 2023
No riders were injured by the crack that developed on Fury 325, but the coaster has been shut down since June 30 after a guest named Jeremy Wagner noticed the damaged pillar. Wagner later criticized park staff’s reactions to his safety concerns as “nonchalant” in an interview with CNN.
Fury 325 is the tallest coaster in the world with a lift hill, hitting a top speed of 95 miles per hour along its 6,602 feet of track. It has been voted the best steel roller coaster in Amusement Today magazine’s Golden Ticket Awards every year since 2016.