Amusement Park Railing
What’s scarier than a 146 foot drop at 64 mph? Depending on who you ask the answer may vary. If you happen to own the roller coaster that made that drop, a likely answer may be somebody getting injured before they even stepped foot on to the ride.
Fortunately for the good people at “FunSpot”, that’s a worry they don’t have to think too much about.
Eric from “Funspot”, a popular amusement park in Atlanta, reached out to the Project Specialists here at Simplified Building through our website.
Eric told us all about this awesome new roller coaster they just built called the “ArieForce One”. This roller coaster is the biggest Zero G-Stall in America, including an 83-degree angle drop, everything any thrill seeker or adrenaline junkie could ever ask for.
The Roller coaster was built, and the weather was just starting to get nice, but one problem remained.
They did not have an ADA Complaint Handrail for the line people would wait in to get on the ride.
Designing Amusement Park Railing
After Eric reached out for a quote through our website and got connected to me, Vadim Dushuk, Project Specialist for Simplified Building, he sent us a top view rough sketch detailing the measurements of the area he needed handrail for.
I followed up by phone and spoke with Eric to understand what was needed for this project. This area needed ADA-compliant ramp railing.
Why might you ask? This is a public-facing business, meaning that not just this section, but all of the amusement park must adhere to ADA requirements.
ADA Ramp Railing Requirements
"A barrier should be built so that a sphere of 4 inches cannot pass by the railing anywhere within 4 inches of the ramp."
Why this is required is to prevent any wheelchair, crutch, or person from potentially falling or slipping off the side of a wheelchair ramp. Like I stated, safety is important both on and off the ride.
This ramp required a bottom rail along any section where there wasn’t any edge protection. If you note in the picture above, the lower part does not require a bottom rail however the next two runs of the ramp do require it.
By not having to install a bottom rail saved around 15 feet of railing, which saves a good deal of money without sacrificing safety.
If you want to learn more about different ADA requirements and how they could apply to your project, check out our full ADA Guide.
Planning Custom ADA Handrails
One problem remained, however. This was a completely custom solution, there is no instruction manual, or specific guide for this. Once he receives this system, where does he even start? I would feel the same way if I was him, and I’m sure most people would.
I told Eric my team here can create a 3D Rendered Model of his system through SketchUp, with all the fittings labeled, and placed where they belong, leaving little room for confusion. Having these custom 3D models of his system alleviated his worries that he’d be a fish out of water with this system in his hands, the very thing we as a company were eager to do.
An example of what a "blown up" view of the system is shown below.
Installing Amusement Park Handrails
Once Eric received the system, he went straight to work. I can write about just how great the handrail came out, but the pictures below do it better justice.
Eric did a fantastic job putting the system together. Our systems are meant to create ease of mind with simplicity in installation, and he took full advantage of that. Below is the same empty area we showed above, with our handrail solution installed, along with the other side of the station.
After their initial order, the people at FunSpot ordered another handrail only 6 days later, this handrail is shown in the picture below. I called Eric and he told me everyone there was “obsessed” with our product, and they had a lot of fun putting it together. I guess those extra fittings from the first order were about to come in handy after all.
In total, Eric used our products to create a separate handrail for a walking area, an ADA Compliant handrail system, and even guardrails that blocked off restricted areas while displaying signs as well.
For an amusement park like “FunSpot”, the sky is truly the limit, and with the solutions we provided for them, the saying goes just the same. If you have a project that you’d like someone to assist you with, fill out a form on our website, and anyone one of our more than capable team members will help you fulfill the vision you have in mind.
When your possibilities are only as endless as you want them to be, what will you build?
