Refurbishing the UK's tallest rollercoaster

Overview

Blackpool, famous for its seaside location and the iconic engineering structure, Blackpool Tower, is also home to another feat of engineering – the UK’s tallest rollercoaster.

The Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach was originally opened to the public in 1994, standing at 71m high. After 26 years in operation, and more than 10 million cycles, refurbishment works, including track replacement, were commissioned.

Jarrod Hulme, Managing Director at Taziker Engineering Services, worked on the original construction and was thrilled to get the chance to deliver the refurbishment programme.

Hear about Taziker’s approach, the challenges and the solutions including:

• 3D scanning and installing a temporary support frame
• Replacing four track sections, 45m in length, to give passengers a smoother ride experience
• Manufacturing the tracks – this had to be done from historical drawings alone due to the time lapse from the original design of the structure
• Adapting to the restriction of working during the winter ‘off-season’
• Strict safety and testing measures

All images from Taziker