Netting structures at AK Tree of Life paths

[RSoxNo1]

I'm curious to know the name of the storm that broke the Tree of Life, since countless previous "named" storms failed to do so.

Sorry, but it was a windy day. Not more than that. I've lived here for eight years now, and can tell the difference.

Hurricane Crofton

 

[HMButler79]

They look fine in person. They blend in with the queue. As has already been said, I'm certain it's a temporary measure put into place to ensure safety while they keep the attraction open. Talked to the poor cast members who have to stand at the queue and tell people the attraction is closed. They were given all kinds of tongue lashings by guests who insisted their vacations were ruined, lives were destroyed and children were scarred, because Tough to be a Bug wasn't operating.

And it wasn't a "windy day." It was a storm. Storms break stuff, especially great big stuff that sticks way up into the air. REAL trees get damaged by storms. Damn nature needs to pay more attention to maintaining its stuff.

Storm causes some damage, people complain.

Close the attraction, people complain.

Put something in place temporarily to open the attraction while still repairing the tree, people complain.

Even though 99% of them don't even KNOW what the attraction is or who Flick is anymore.

 

[TheGenXer]

I'm curious to know the name of the storm that broke the Tree of Life, since countless previous "named" storms failed to do so.

****

You're putting an awful lot of effort into missing the point.

Using your faulty logic, no structure that has survived "stronger" storms unscathed should ever be damaged by a "weaker" storm. But we both know that isn't true, don't we?

Sometimes, nature happens. It's why the term "act of god" was invented. But, as I already said, people will complain regardless.

 

[marni1971]

Hurricane Crofton

Ooooooo!

 

[InsideOtherPark]

The endless debate about how you would not see nets in the natural setting is wonderful.

A big giant tree with animal faces all over it...you see that ever day.

 

[chipndale09]

Dear god... This is ridiculous.

I agree....wow

 

[devoy1701]

Hurricane Crofton

Booom!!! :lol:

 

[GLaDOS]

And it wasn't a "windy day." It was a storm. Storms break stuff, especially great big stuff that sticks way up into the air. REAL trees get damaged by storms. Damn nature needs to pay more attention to maintaining its stuff.

Storm causes some damage, people complain.

Oh please. The thing was built to withstand a dang hurricane. A little storm shouldn't have damaged it.

Those nets are super duper ugly, too. I wonder how "temporary" they'll be. Birthdayland temporary or Wand temporary

 

[jakeman]

Oh please. The thing was built to withstand a dang hurricane. A little storm shouldn't have damaged it.

Those nets are super duper ugly, too. I wonder how "temporary" they'll be. Birthdayland temporary or Wand temporary

But he has a point, sometimes a branch can withstand a hurricane, but be felled by a lesser storm months or years later.

We don't know what the situation is. It's easy to self-righteously point the finger at "TDO" or whomever, but we simply don't have enough information to come to any sort of conclusion, up to and including a lack of maintenance or not.

So I don't get pounced on as an apologist, I'm simply saying there are alot of assumptions being thrown around and there aren't really any facts.

 

[devoy1701]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKFRSL4wpcY&feature=related

 

[unkadug]

Looks pretty simple to me. Water always runs down and I would bet a large amount of money that the tree has a leak somewhere toward the top. Joint leak, metal rusted through, in a structure that big I wouldn't doubt a water leak could go unnoticed for a long time. Not sure how the branches are exactly connected to the tree but it would make sense if water ran down from above and ran out of a branch or just sat in a branch slowly decaying it. If that's all true what a pain in the A$$ to fix. I see it a lot where I live, rain and humidity combine adding poorly installed flashing and rot does follow. Flashing and sealing jobs always seem to be given to the lowest experienced person on the construction crew. Those nets could be there a while as in years and they are built well enough to last years. For that matter they are easy to fix so they could be there forever if need be. Just pretend you are in Monkey Jungle??? Tell the kids the nets keep the animals from dropping in on you??? Probably keep them occupied in they think they'll be attacked from above. LOL.

Yeah, but nets ROT a lot faster than metal rusts. If they can't watch for metal rusting, what makes us so sure they will keep an eye on the nets?

 

[Pixiedustmaker]

Looks pretty simple to me. Water always runs down and I would bet a large amount of money that the tree has a leak somewhere toward the top. Joint leak, metal rusted through, in a structure that big I wouldn't doubt a water leak could go unnoticed for a long time. Not sure how the branches are exactly connected to the tree but it would make sense if water ran down from above and ran out of a branch or just sat in a branch slowly decaying it. If that's all true what a pain in the A$$ to fix. I see it a lot where I live, rain and humidity combine adding poorly installed flashing and rot does follow. Flashing and sealing jobs always seem to be given to the lowest experienced person on the construction crew. Those nets could be there a while as in years and they are built well enough to last years. For that matter they are easy to fix so they could be there forever if need be. Just pretend you are in Monkey Jungle??? Tell the kids the nets keep the animals from dropping in on you??? Probably keep them occupied in they think they'll be attacked from above. LOL.

I saw some more pictures of the structure in question on Kevin Yee's column on Miceage . . . looks like they added some support struta for some of the 2x4s or whatever they are using (or maybe they were always there). Others parts of the structure seem to lack these.

The whole structure would have to stand-up to hurricane force wind, plus you've got those nets. I'm not sure what wind would do with them, but it might be enough to loosen the wood or just get the nets torn up. The nets themselves look to be made out of some sort of twine, not synthetic fiber. I am sure birds will start sitting on them, and pooping on guests below.

We can speculate about how permanent the nets look, (folks who build patios and decks could put up this contraption without much effort, maybe $5-7,000 worth of wood there, plus twenty hours labor, maybe $25,000 for the whole job?), but the nets don't FIX the problem of a 14-story structure with 5 lbs. pieces of it falling off. What if a wind blows a falling branch outside of the safety zone?

Meaning that it is almost certain that a major refurbishment will occur this next year. First they got to build a scaffolding, maybe takes them 2-4 weeks, then they've got to inspect for a couple weeks, then ??? who knows how much time to do the repair work. Though the nets make the area look safe, a big 100+ lbs branch could tear through the nets like a knife through butter, killing a couple of guests.

Even if there is a way for inspector to 'walk' along the branches, they wouldn't be able to fully see what is happening with all the 5 lbs branches. Disney would be liable if they didn't do the inspection and repair work after the accident as, obviously, the conditions that allowed the branch to fail affects the whole tree.

I doubt that anybody involved with building construction and safety, or a lawyer, would say, "Yeah . . . let's leave those nets up, that'll take care of the problem for the next five years. . . The netting they have is the cheapest way you could throw up something like that, poles, 2x4s between them, bolts to anchor them, some support struts . . . they didn't just sink the poles into the ground (which would make the wood rot faster), and usted a metal bracket, BUT this invovles less destruction to the queue and will be easier to fix when the nets come down. Anyway, the whole thing isn't themed at all, they could have add plastic camo-plants to the structure, or build better anchors for the posts, but they didn't. Even Alice's temporary railing in DL has some theming to it.

I know some people don't want to blame TDO . . . but regular paint jobs are important for even non-wood things like bridges, even cement can be eaten away by rain and metal corrodes. I suspect that there was a window, or a timeframe for recommended refurbishment for TOL and that TDO let the thing slide until the latest possible date, perhaps even making some new guesstimates about how long TOL could go without a refurb.

 

[dcibrando]

OI'm at wdw now and went through the it's tough to be a bug queue. To be honest, I thought the nets were very well done and also helped in some ways to provide a little more shade in the queue. It may have taken away a little clear view of the tree but I really didn't think it was a big deal

I know we all bash the hello kitty out of Disney for just trying to get by and save money but trust me when I say they did a really good job on these nets whether they are temporary or permanent to fit the look and design of the area and I dont have a problem with it because of that

One thing that will be interesting though is if they'll have to frequently clean out leaves from piling on the top?

 

[devoy1701]

OI'm at wdw now and went through the it's tough to be a bug queue. To be honest, I thought the nets were very well done and also helped in some ways to provide a little more shade in the queue. It may have taken away a little clear view of the tree but I really didn't think it was a big deal

I know we all bash the hello kitty out of Disney for just trying to get by and save money but trust me when I say they did a really good job on these nets whether they are temporary or permanent to fit the look and design of the area and I dont have a problem with it because of that

One thing that will be interesting though is if they'll have to frequently clean out leaves from piling on the top?

That is absolutely a big deal.

 

[DznyRktekt]

That is absolutely a big deal.

Agreed... and as the plastic leaves begin to fall due to lack of mainteneance, it will be -no big deal- because the tree will appear as if it has become the fall or winter season. TDO will then have the opportunity to place artificial snow along the pathways to make things fit the storyline. :brick:

 

[KevinYee]

I saw some more pictures of the structure in question on Kevin Yee's column on Miceage . . . looks like they added some support struta for some of the 2x4s or whatever they are using (or maybe they were always there). Others parts of the structure seem to lack these.

I have more pics on this pictorial: http://ultimateorlando.blogspot.com/2012/05/tree-of-life-fallen-branch-and-new-net.html

I'm the last person to defend TDO on maintenance issues, but this issue is thorny. If I were in their shoes and part of my tree came down, I'm not sure I'd act much differently.

You can't just hope it was nothing. You can't just wait for another accident and a lawsuit.

You COULD keep the tree shut down for weeks/months while you figure out what the problem was, but that's tricky with your park icon, and in a park that has so few rides already.

So I might have done the same thing as a stopgap. What matters more is what happens next!

 

[COProgressFan]

I have more pics on this tutorial: http://ultimateorlando.blogspot.com/2012/05/tree-of-life-fallen-branch-and-new-net.html

I'm the last person to defend TDO on maintenance issues, but this issue is thorny. If I were in their shoes and part of my tree came down, I'm not sure I'd act much differently.

You can't just hope it was nothing. You can't just wait for another accident and a lawsuit.

You COULD keep the tree shut down for weeks/months while you figure out what the problem was, but that's tricky with your park icon, and in a park that has so few rides already.

So I might have done the same thing as a stopgap. What matters more is what happens next!

I agree with this. The key is how long the nets stay up, and what they do in the meantime to inspect / repair the tree as necessary.

We don't know if this was an issue with TDO's maintenance schedule, an error or miscalculation in the original construction, or just some fluke. But even still, piece of man-made structures shouldn't just be falling off, so clearly they have to take some steps to make sure the tree is safe.

First step is the netting, and I would hope they would perform a full branch by branch inspection of the tree in the coming weeks/months. Any issues would be addressed, and if everything goes well, the nets could be down in a few months.

But again, it's all speculation, and we'll have to wait and see what happens next.

 

[HM GhostHostess]

Have there been any updates on this?

 

[menamechris]

Have there been any updates on this?

Nets are still there. Saw them yesterday. It doesn't look awful, but it doesn't look great either. And with the ropes and "Do not enter" signs along so much of the trail now, it does feel like a construction site...so I am hoping this is temporary. But I am sure "temporary" - given the scope of the project of finding out what happened - could be quite a very long time..

I am curious to hear what the plan of action is - which no one seems to know. I suppose it is possible that they are having meetings about whether it should be a temporary or permanent fix....