Kennywood's Racer reopens after one-day closure stemming from viral photo of concrete blocks holding up coaster
WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. (KDKA) -- The Racer back open after a viral photo led Kennywood Park to shut the coaster down for one day amid safety concerns from the public.
People were worried about the safety of the ride after a photo went viral, showing part of the coaster seemingly propped up on concrete blocks -- but the park says the ride reopened after a "non-structural enhancement."
The Department of Agriculture said it heard the concerns and sent an inspector to the park earlier this week, saying that they found the support in question was not a primary structural support, but a back-up support.
Because of that, inspectors deemed that the ride was safe for operation and recommended only minor, non-structural modifications.
Kennywood closed the ride temporarily yesterday and KDKA's news crew saw workers underneath the tracks and went into the park with a structural engineer.
"One column in particular that's not attached doesn't mean the ride is in imminent danger of collapse," said Mark Sipos with Keystone Structural Solutions. "What it does mean is that the other supporting elements are probably taking additional forces and loads that they possibly weren't intending on taking."
Kennywood confirmed that the work was being done was a non-structural enhancement and also said that safety is the parks top priority and that all rides are inspected daily, as mandated by state requirements.
