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Future of the Congo River Rapids

There's so many things they can do to improve the ride and also the safety.

First of all the boats need to be modernised and made safer. How difficult can it be to get higher sides on the boat with roped / mesh gates which people can't fall through. That way water still comes into the boat to offer thrills but it makes it much more difficult to fall out.

I do think we will see a retheme of the area eventually and that's probably when we might get a new name and some more theming elements added.

Personally think Katanga has had its day. It's looking and feeling very tired.
 
Katanga Canyon used to be one of my favourite themed areas of the park, but over the years it has pretty much lots all its charm.

First they plonked the games stalls right in the middle of the area blocking the sight lines of the RMT and making the viewing area (which then just became a smoking area) completely hidden and unused.

Then they made things even worse by ruining most the other views with fences. Such a shame as it was so well thought out originally with views of the Rapids and RMT interacting at various points.

I understand health and safety rules change but the solution of those fences with plastic viewing areas were clearly done on the cheap. If the Rapids does get a spruce up I hope part of the budget is spent on coming up with something more aesthetically pleasing and suitable.
 
AT86 said:
I understand health and safety rules change
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It wasnt really a rule change, just a change of attitude, that the parks became so wary of looking like there 'could' be similar cases after the girl fell off Tomb Blaster queue at Chessington (due to poor safety checks/maintenance) and Smiler crash.

They could if they wanted reduce the fence height in that area, since risk of falling is quite low. Or come up with a better solution somehow that doesnt look so bad.
 
True ‘rule change’ was perhaps the wrong choice of words. It’s safe to say the Chessington incident, and perhaps even more so the death and fine at Warwick Castle both played into the subsequent spree of additional fencing across the parks.

‘Warwick Castle firm fined after man died falling into moat’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-17839398

As is often with Merlin, it’s not so much what they are doing, but how it is done. The fences in Katanga Canyon could have been implemented in a much more sympathetic way.
 
Benjsh said:
First of all the boats need to be modernised and made safer. How difficult can it be to get higher sides on the boat with roped / mesh gates which people can't fall through. That way water still comes into the boat to offer thrills but it makes it much more difficult to fall out.
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They added gates to the boats last season.
 
Newest tweet on the AT twitter has a link to info about the newest Towers Loving Care work and says there's been some themeing added to the rapids and mentions to look out for "new mask and paddle features which sit in the bay of the waterfalls"- do we reckon this means they've been turned back on?
 
Heidi said:
Newest tweet on the AT twitter has a link to info about the newest Towers Loving Care work and says there's been some themeing added to the rapids and mentions to look out for "new mask and paddle features which sit in the bay of the waterfalls"- do we reckon this means they've been turned back on?
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Sounds positive. They may well have reduced the power of the waterfalls and added some theming at the bottom to reduce the splash and therefore the risk of guests standing up. If so, sounds like a good compromise.
 
Where is this tweet, out of interest? I can’t see anything on Alton’s Twitter page; the last thing I saw was about the frog fountains.
 
Great to see that the waterfalls could be returning. Will be interesting to see what extra safety measures Towers have put in place though.
 
Ah, I’ve found what everyone’s referring to now: https://www.altontowers.com/about-a...ZMeF5xPcLjpsjfMUTYcmPq5c2bDF3Ajbsi8SLvSW3BZjg

As it turns out, the “mask and paddle features” are actual pieces of theming that will go where the waterfalls are. I don’t know whether the park have said about them being turned back on, but I can only assume that the park is at least thinking about it given that they specifically mentioned “the waterfalls”!

I think it’s quite nice to see the ride gaining a theme of sorts, though!
 
Seems odd that they refer to them as the waterfalls if there will not be water falling haha.
I assumed they meant the themeing piece will be placed next to them, but maybe it has been stuck on the walls of what used to be the waterfall. But again, to then call that a waterfall if theyre switched off is a strange move.
 
Heidi said:
Seems odd that they refer to them as the waterfalls if there will not be water falling haha.
I assumed they meant the themeing piece will be placed next to them, but maybe it has been stuck on the walls of what used to be the waterfall. But again, to then call that a waterfall if theyre switched off is a strange move.
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Exactly, it would seem odd to refer to waterfalls if they're not waterfalls anymore.
 
I might be wrong, but I feel as though they wouldn't want to draw attention to the waterfalls if they had been turned off by calling them waterfalls in the update. If the themeing had been placed on the wall of where they used to be, I would imagine they wouldn't call them waterfalls at all.
 
A paddle does sound like something that could potentially be used to deflect the water, but that said, the very sight of the waterfalls is enough to get people switching seats, no matter how much you deflect the water. So that is the biggest issue I see. I guess we will see.
 
jon81uk said:
Not gonna happen as they would have to dig out a new clean water lake for the splashdown. Safety rules are now that diseases in the water need to be considered more so they couldn't use the existing lake.
Would be easier to just build a new tidal wave elsewhere (or go to Thorpe Park and ride that one for a similar effect).
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AT86 said:
Katanga Canyon used to be one of my favourite themed areas of the park, but over the years it has pretty much lots all its charm.

First they plonked the games stalls right in the middle of the area blocking the sight lines of the RMT and making the viewing area (which then just became a smoking area) completely hidden and unused.

Then they made things even worse by ruining most the other views with fences. Such a shame as it was so well thought out originally with views of the Rapids and RMT interacting at various points.

I understand health and safety rules change but the solution of those fences with plastic viewing areas were clearly done on the cheap. If the Rapids does get a spruce up I hope part of the budget is spent on coming up with something more aesthetically pleasing and suitable.
Click to expand...

I'm puzzled at the quotes above. "safety rules are now that diseases in the water need to be considered more so they couldn't use the existing lake". What does this mean? In terms of legionella control increasing a lake size wouldn't matter, the water would only be an issue if it was stagnant. holding water in a lake for 10-12 hours before releasing just wouldn't give rise to any meaningful or significant bacteria that would impact the design of a new ride as suggested.

"understand health and safety rules change" regulations and standards change yes, but there's been no significant changes in H&S law to warrant change to the area, it's the initial interpretation and implementation by the company of these regulations/laws/standards etc which are mainly at fault in the first place and (more than likely), not good enough that they have to improve upon them.

If we're going to give option and quote wooly regulations in the first instance then they need to be sourced otherwise they hold no cred.

L8 for your legionella stuff
https://www.hse.gov.uk/pUbns/priced/l8.pdf

No idea about the other one so I cannot really quantify it.
 
Godscrasher said:
I'm puzzled at the quotes above. "safety rules are now that diseases in the water need to be considered more so they couldn't use the existing lake". What does this mean? In terms of legionella control increasing a lake size wouldn't matter, the water would only be an issue if it was stagnant. holding water in a lake for 10-12 hours before releasing just wouldn't give rise to any meaningful or significant bacteria that would impact the design of a new ride as suggested.

"understand health and safety rules change" regulations and standards change yes, but there's been no significant changes in H&S law to warrant change to the area, it's the initial interpretation and implementation by the company of these regulations/laws/standards etc which are mainly at fault in the first place and (more than likely), not good enough that they have to improve upon them.

If we're going to give option and quote wooly regulations in the first instance then they need to be sourced otherwise they hold no cred.

L8 for your legionella stuff
https://www.hse.gov.uk/pUbns/priced/l8.pdf

No idea about the other one so I cannot really quantify it.
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my understanding was that in the 30+ years since the AT rapids were built, the management of theme park rides has changed significantly and it is no longer usual to use an existing lake for water rides and most are built to have full separation from natural water features.

as someone else has already pointed out, it wouldn’t be a significant enough modification to need to re-do it from scratch and provide a dedicated water system if something like this was done to CRR.

The relevant section is
“
Water quality
262 For attractions where people are deliberately or incidentally brought into contact with water, including the inhalation of water aerosols, suitable and sufficient treatment/dosing and testing arrangements should be provided to make sure that the quality of the water does not present a risk to health from bacteria such as legionella. More advice on the control of legionella is on HSE’s website: www.hse.gov.uk/legionnaires
“
From https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg175.pdf

although I’m not certain on whether the existing lake surrounding CRR would be considered a risk, modern water rides (Tidal Wave at Thorpe Viking rapids at Legoland etc) are built with fully contained water systems of treated water.
 
Is CRR not fully contained, but more natural looking than most retention ponds? The Drayton rides, for example, take water from the lake, which is not contained and has inlets and outlets.
 
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