The race is underway to relaunch a roller coaster in Ocean City, NJ, before people flock to the shore for the summer season.
Crews at Playland's Castaway Cove, an amusement park located on the Ocean City boardwalk, are in the final stages of replacing all 1,200 feet of track on the Gale Force roller coaster.
The GaleForce opened just last year, but maintenance staffers and riders noticed that the high-speed ride was a bit too bumpy, due to tiny ridges in the tracks.
"There was never a safety issue to the customer," Brian Hartley of Playland's Castaway Cove said. "Never anything to worry about that way. Just more about the overall enjoyment of the ride itself."
The original tracks were manufactured in Italy, but the new ones were made by a different vendor located in Utah.
It isn't uncommon for roller coasters to receive track replacements. In 2016, the Great Nor'Easter roller coaster, located in Wildwoods' Morey's Pier amusement park, had its entire 2,100 foot track replaced to create a smoother ride.
This wasnt GaleForce's first issue, though. The roller coaster was opened about a year later than expected due to manufacturing problems.
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"It's been a long project, unfortunately," Jason Benoit of Playland's Castaway Cove said.
The amusement park doesn't have to foot the bill for renovations though, because the roller coaster's designer is paying for the track redo.
"They are absorbing the entire cost of the project from the track itself to the crews that are putting it up," Hartley said.
Sadly, GaleForce isn't expected to be up and running for the park's opening this weekend. The park's centerpiece attraction is expected to open in early May.
