Originally Posted By believe Also, I didn't think he was blaming a design flaw. He just stated what the problem was. Fact is/was, the shows were cancelled on Wednesday. He's a blogger, not a journalist. Would be nice to know the source, but not necessary.
Originally Posted By TP2000 Exactly, believe. I think the vast majority of us understand that perfectly. One or two other folks here, however...
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 I think Manny has a personal issue against Al. Maybe Al ripped a few of the things Manny worked on before WDI kicked him to the curb? While I think Al comes off as an obnoxious twit often, his track record with major/factual information in the past 3-4 years has been about .950 ... that's one helluva a batting average!
Originally Posted By DlandDug >>I thought Al was clear. 1. WOC cancelled on Wed - due to problems with WOC platform, not earthquake. 2. Disney working hard to get it working for Thursday.<< Well, that's not what I got. Here's what he actually said: >>The full cancellation of World of Color performances Wednesday night can't be blamed on the afternoon earthquake for certain.<< So that covers the first assertion. He then goes on to say: >>Multiple buoys that help raise the show platform up to the waterline sprung leaks and filled with water at some point before the platform was raised Wednesday evening. The middle and left platforms weren't aligned properly when the underwater scissor lifts were commanded to lock the platforms in place, with the middle platform suffering the most damage as the two massive structures were wedged into each other at an angle causing stressed structural beams and damaged fountains. A full team of divers, engineers, and outside contractors have been brought in to assess just how bad the damage is before the repairs can begin, or even what the repairs need to be, and there's no word yet how long all that may take.<< No mention of getting it working to put on the night's show, just an assessment to see when repairs can begin. Frankly, more like: >>...trying to make it look like there were serious problems with the design...<< and less like >>...Disney working hard to get it working for Thursday.<<
Originally Posted By Westsider According to some Guest Control Leads from World of Color, it was touch and go with the show for awhile even on Thursday, after DCA management gambled and figured the temporary fixes would be in place by showtime Thursday night. Once the temporary fixes and patches were in place Thursday afternoon, they ran a full test show in the lagoon in broad daylight to make sure the patch worked. And it worked. Only then did they add the third show for Thursday night, literally just a few hours before showtime, and they switched the Grizzly Fastpass machines back over to World of Color around 6:00pm to distribute Fastpasses for the third show. The repairs to the scissor lifts on Table 2 are still kind of iffy, and they will be going back in on overnights for the next few nights to make the repairs more permanent. The outside contractors that installed a lot of this stuff have been called back in to help. They are also talking about a full redesign of the scissor lift mechanisms, but that's further down the road. For now, they are hoping the patch job and temporary procedures they are using to get the tables up to Show level and locked there for several hours each night will keep working until the permanent fixes are in place.
Originally Posted By mickeymorris1234 I never understood why Disney just didn't put the entire platform on a hydrologic system like belagio. Putting the entire system on hydrolic lifts and then lifting the platform or lowering when needed seems a simpler way to do it. It would have been level from the begining and they wouldn't be having this problem either.
Originally Posted By believe maybe they thought it was a new and improved way to raise/lower the platform?
Originally Posted By Bob Paris 1 "^^I guess someone didnt read post #5. " The Al bashers kinda get blinded in their hate.
Originally Posted By DlandDug I think it is likely the case that the platform for WoC is just too large for a hydraulic based system. Bear in mind the scissor lifts do not lift the platforms-- they just lock them in place. There are advantages and disadvantages for either system. The system used in WoC uses a series of ballasts which can be filled or emptied to cause the platform to "rest" at a set of defined levels. The advantage is that the levels are not absolute-- they are relative to the water level of the entire lagoon. Of course, the disadvantage is that if the ballasts are compromised, there is trouble. Which is what happened last Wednesday.
Originally Posted By TP2000 Spirit of 74, your Post #24 suddenly explains a lot. Thanks for that. And also thank you to DlandDug for filling in the gaps here. It all is making more sense now, and it appears it really wasn't earthquake related at all. Fascinating.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< it appears it really wasn't earthquake related at all. >>> Well, at least we know it's not from the earthquake "for certain."
Originally Posted By LOVE-DCA a cm told me this weekend that the pipe that broke happend right after the earthquake..hmmmmmmm
Originally Posted By Manfried "a cm told me this weekend that the pipe that broke happend right after the earthquake..hmmmmmmm" Ya think maybe? Huh? Let's wait until we get some hard facts not supposition. But I will compliment Al on the photo of the concrete falling in that parking building. How come no one's looking into that? Glad all our parking lots are on asphalt. All we have to worry about are lightning strikes.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I don't know the exact circumstances of the parking structure, but it just sounds like standard aging of a reinforced concrete structure to me. The beams have steel rebar in their lower halfs, since that is the portion of the beam that is in tension. Since concrete can't withstand any tension forces, the steel takes the load. As the beams deflect with the loads and age, the concrete around the bottom edge begins to crack and fall out, leaving the steel exposed. The only real purpose that the concrete under the steel has is to protect the rebar from fire and water damage, and serves no real structural purpose. Of course, there are different circumstances for every case, and I don't know what sort of damage was done exactly, but it's not a very unusual problem.
Originally Posted By Manfried Seems like there's an awful lot of other parking structures that don't fall apart like this.
Originally Posted By TP2000 Manfried, the more accurate statement would probably be "Seems like there's an awful lot of other parking structures that don't have a dedicated blogger covering them monthly". ;-) I worked at the University of Washington in the 1970's, and there was a huge parking structure built in the late 1960's into the side of a hill on the east side of campus. It was part of a larger campus expansion designed by the famous architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merril. And after nearly a decade of use it bagan to crumble and crack and cause all sorts of problems. It was a huge undertaking to go in and repair and retrofit the structure, and chunks of concrete falling on cars were always a big gossip topic on campus. It happened a long time ago, but it was quite memorable, because as anyone who has ever worked on a big college campus knows the two most important things that students, faculty and alumni all care about simultaneously is football and parking. So, this happens at big parking structures, and we'd need an architectural engineer to tell us why. I have a hunch it has something to do with a constantly shifting load of great proportions as you have thousands of cars per day weighing the structure down and then disappearing again at night. The engineering involved in planning for that massive daily weight shift must be very impressive.
Originally Posted By believe >>>>><<< it appears it really wasn't earthquake related at all. >>> Well, at least we know it's not from the earthquake "for certain."<<<<<<< Well, that's what Al said- and he's usually right, but I'd say that it is highly suspicious and highly coincidental that an earthquake happened on the same day. And, interesting to note that Disney never confirmed or denied what the problem was.
Originally Posted By LOVE-DCA "a cm told me this weekend that the pipe that broke happend right after the earthquake..hmmmmmmm" Ya think maybe? Huh? >>>>Let's wait until we get some hard facts not supposition. But I will compliment Al on the photo of the concrete falling in that parking building. How come no one's looking into that? Glad all our parking lots are on asphalt. All we have to worry about are lightning strikes<<<<<< umm manfried i was talking about the WOC pipe. not the parking structure.. soo next time maybe you need to get the hard facts insteasd of jumpin all over someones post untill you find out what they are talking about.. and i was reffering to the WOC pipes as this is the WOC problems thread..as that is why the show got canceld last week after the earthquake.
Originally Posted By 999HAUNTS Why can't folks be civil instead of accusatory? There are nicer ways to state your position. For the record, most wharf employees were told to tell guests that the earthquake caused the cancellation of WOC if guests inquired. They were also instructed not to bargain with guests, but instead have them visit guest services to voice their concerns.
