Project 2021/Drachen Spire: Intamin Multi-Launch Shuttle Giga Coaster [Cancelled]

General Information:​

"Project Drachen Spire," is a community-generated identifier for the Intamin-made, multi-launch, shuttle giga coaster that was originally slated to open at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in 2021. The attraction is planned to utilize the currently-vacant land behind Verbolten, Festhaus Park—the former home of Drachen Fire.

The coaster's main layout—as leaked before the addition was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic—featured two launches, two spikes (one spiral, one vertical-ish), and a couple of banked turns. Drachen Spire was designed to run two trains by means of a pair of switch tracks connecting the primary, shuttle portion of the layout to the station platform.

Important Articles:​

• Most Up-To-Date Understanding of the Layout:
  
  

  Leaked Electrical Plan Depicts Busch Gardens Williamsburg's 2021 Roller Coaster in Detail – BGWFans

  If there’s a god, he’s up there laughing this afternoon. Why? Because BGWFans just had one of those classic sitcom moments. Yesterday, we published our painstakingly detailed analysis of the footer plan for what we believe is Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s 2021 roller coaster—seemingly a huge...

  bgwfans.com
• Most Recent Status Update:
  
  

  Drachen Spire Height Waiver Extension Details – BGWFans

  Just over a week ago, we reported on the renewal of the notorious 355 foot Festhaus Park height waiver that was originally requested for the controversial, Intamin-made, multi-launch, giga, shuttle coaster we’ve dubbed Drachen Spire. In last week’s article, we were very careful to leave the door...

  bgwfans.com

NoLimits Model of the Layout:​

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Direct Link to Embedded Media Source

Additional Coverage (Newest to Oldest):​

• https://bgwfans.com/2022/drachen-spire-height-waiver-extension-details/
• https://bgwfans.com/2022/drachen-spire-height-waiver-renewal/
• https://bgwfans.com/2021/drachen-spires-slumber/
• https://bgwfans.com/2020/leaked-ele...-williamsburgs-2021-roller-coaster-in-detail/
• https://bgwfans.com/2020/busch-gardens-williamsburg-2021-shuttle-giga-coaster/
• https://bgwfans.com/2019/germany-expansion-site-plans/
• https://bgwfans.com/2019/2021-rpa-impacts-plan/
• https://bgwfans.com/2019/newly-leaked-document-depicts-project-2021s-station/
• https://bgwfans.com/2019/project-2021-height-waiver-vote-happens-tomorrow/
• https://bgwfans.com/2019/born-from-the-ashes/
• https://bgwfans.com/2019/bgw-project-2021/

Previous Thread:​

https://parkfans.net/threads/january-2019-festhaus-park-height-survey.5696/

 

[Diamond Dave]

If I'm expecting anything, it's not just a bigger Pantheon.
There's going to be some "gimmick", we just don't know what that is yet

 

[ijerngvidsnvk]

 

[BGWnut]

Now this is just plain hilarious ?

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Publicly refuting our claims sows confusion. In a lot of ways, that just, in turn, results in more hype for the project.

We can't say for sure that BGW didn't seed fake station plans to people in hopes that they'd get out to BGWFans. And we can't say for sure that they didn't then file falsified RPA impacts plans with the county to backup that previous reporting. That said, we can estimate that the amount of man hours and money involved would be prohibitive given even the best case outcome for the park.

I'm pretty confident in my reporting here, but if BGW sees BGWFans as a big enough player to put themselves through everything that would be required to pull off a con job like this, I can only say I'm proud. ?

I love that the park did that but I definitely agree with your first suggestion. I don't think that the park would bother to go through all the time and money to create fake plans. I'm not going to lie I would actually kind of love it if they did. I think that it's just more that they know them calling attention to the tweet is an easy way to keep letting hype build without them having to do very much. It's smart marketing.

Although I have to say that my initial reaction was that it was someone who has access to the BGW account accidentally tweet from the BGW account instead of their private account.

I’m well aware of the guesses-nature of layouts previously shared, including my own.. The comment was offered in the spirit of ruling out that direction - if the guess holds true there won’t be a ravine crossing.

Edit: put another way, is the most recent reveal the Eastern-most perimeter of the layout, if another RPA isn’t forthcoming?

All these plans tell us is the extent of the ride within the RPA buffer. There is still a lot of room for the ride to be built. It's possible that they will revise the RPA buffer like they did with Pantheon. But I wouldn't expect them to do much revising. With Pantheon it was mostly just fine tuning the footer locations.

 

[Diamond Dave]

View attachment 18245

Don't forget Vault. Well, kinda. I think it WAS supposed to be a one-year thing, but they realized they could fit it in the schedule to still have a house in there this year too.

 

[madmax]

Full giga layout

 

[BGWnut]

View attachment 18246

Full giga layout

The highest point should be in the side closest to Verbolten from the RPA buffer. I'm not saying that it's not a Giga. Just that this particular layout doesn't fit what we know.

 

[BGWnut]

Whoever is running the BGW Twitter is having a blast. I wonder if they have someone new running it.

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[James]

I can almost promise you this is just trolling. As a PR guy we do this type of thing all the time.

 

[BGWnut]

I can almost promise you this is just trolling. As a PR guy we do this type of thing all the time.

I think it is too. I just love that BGW is actually doing it. Normally the only thing they know how to say is can you please pm us or we are so glad that you had a great day. It's refreshing to see them saying different stuff and actually trolling

 

[Drachenwolf]

While you're getting all full of yourself BGW, know there are those (of us) that would trade Pantheon and this one-trick lamecoaster for a single awesome, more traditional lift hill Intamin coaster that crossed the river- and back- perhaps eclipsing 300' but not necessarily necessary.

 

[Diamond Dave]

While you're getting all full of yourself BGW, know there are those of us that would trade Pantheon and this one-trick lamecoaster for a single awesome, lift hill Intamin coaster that crossed the river- and back- perhaps eclipsing 300'... (And, IMO, should have included a "Drachen" theme & featured a DF station fly-through)

We almost got half that...then it was decided that two cheaper coasters would have a larger impact on park performance than one larger one. That's what happened to Madrid/the Rhine crossing coaster.

I don't know what I would prefer and I don't think I can say so without personally seeing the original plans and then these two upcoming projects

 

[SLC Headache]

And so the original Project Madrid joins the Alton Towers cross valley woodie among the greatest terrain coasters never built.

 

[BGWnut]

We almost got half that...then it was decided that two cheaper coasters would have a larger impact on park performance than one larger one. That's what happened to Madrid/the Rhine crossing coaster.

I don't know what I would prefer and I don't think I can say so without personally seeing the original plans and then these two upcoming projects

Don't know that I would say two cheaper coasters. The two coasters are certainly more expensive than the original Madrid plans. Although I'm sure the park got a package discount.

Personally I think that the combination of Pantheon and this coaster is the better decision for the park. Obviously it depends on what this ride ends up being but two unique coasters send better than the rumored Madrid coaster that crossed the river.

 

[KDcoasterMAN]

"I've yet to see any coaster built that has that long of a continuous concrete slab. Add to that it appears they have concrete lined drainage culverts going right through the widest portions of the horizonal "slab" where you'd assume would be load bearing footers."

Couldn't get the quote feature to work... The only case you see long, continuous concrete slabs like that is in a tunnel. That's my reasoning.

 

[TLancaster]

I’m just going off memory here, but doesn’t i305 have a kind of concrete slab that runs along the entire length of the lift hill? I think it is something for the cable lift, but it might be a lot narrower than what is showing up on the buffer blueprints.

 

[Zachary]

The only case you see long, continuous concrete slabs like that is in a tunnel. That's my reasoning.

If you look at the impervious structure RPA impacts map for Pantheon and compare it to the actual leaked footer plan, you can see that a sizable buffer is applied around the actual footers in the impacts plan.



In other words, I personally doubt that it's a continuous slab of concrete—I imagine it's just a lot of densely-placed footers.

Additionally, even if this is a long slab, they do have their uses. Pantheon has one.

 

[tursiops]

I know Montu has areas like this.

 

[Zachary]

Just to toss another idea out there about that long straight away: I sorta believe it's a launch. Densely-packed footers, it's location directly adjacent to the highest point area, and that mysterious building dropped in the middle of the run all point me in that direction.

 

[tursiops]

Launching uphill? Then the drop would be iv the verbolten side?

 

[Jonesta6]

Cable lift still hasn't been ruled out though - there's usually a flywheel house and i305 also has a buried cable return (MF is above ground, I believe).