News Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge - Historical Construction/Impressions

[truecoat]

Train trestle on the right. I couldn't be more confused about the placement of everything. The train seems really high to me.

I assume you are talking about this trestle?

 

[Curious Constance]

I assume you are talking about this trestle?

View attachment 194701

Lol no, I was talking about something else. I'm too embarrassed to say which thing now.

 

[Curious Constance]

Seriously, I'm not saying what I thought. Ever.

 

[Old Mouseketeer]

. . .
Also, at the 6:00 mark we get really good shots of the Indian Village. Am I wrong in thinking the "room" being built into the rockwork might be for the re-staged scene where the Indian Shaman tells his stories to the tribe? Or as the guys who guide the Canoes tell you, he's telling "The story of how the churro came to his people".
. . .

Then there's the old story that the Shaman is actually a repurposed previous version Mr. Lincoln (because he's squatting). One legendary Mark Twain pilot (since moved on) "explained" that his translated words were "The world has never had a good definition of the word 'liberty'...."

 

[vancee]

i think u mean this...?

 

[Old Mouseketeer]

I assume you are talking about this trestle?

View attachment 194701

Actually, I don't think the train route is any higher than it was before--there's just a more compressed landscape between the tracks and the river. And I believe the large concrete pile with toothpicks on the right is actually the rocks just North of the new Indian Village. The telephoto lens makes it look like it is directly in front of the path of the train instead of some distance away..."just around the river bend", if you will. And even if you won't. LOL

 

[Curious Constance]

i think u mean this...?

My lawyer has advised me to make no further comments.

 

[Andrew M]

Too bad there isn't a structural engineer on this board.

Ha. I'm actually a licensed Structural P.E. in New York, though I've done a lot more lurking than posting. I'll be happy to answer any questions, though most people here seem to have a pretty good grasp of everything going on.

 

[Andrew M]

In my professional life, I'm more on the civil/transit side, but my education background is almost entirely structural engineering, taught within the framework of California's seismic requirements. I'm even sitting about 6' from a real live structural engineer at this very moment!

That said, I agree with everything @flynnibus has said: the legs should be steel to deal with the tall unbraced load (essentially creating a moment frame out of the 4 legs/columns), but there's really no clear reason that the body/head structures should be so solidly built. It would be fine to construct it out of wood or smaller steel members, and this would help reduce the loads that need to be supported so high up in the air.

From the joints and connections we've seen in construction photos and videos, these look like they will be entirely stationary (which is in line with Disney's policy of removing overhead moving set pieces, following DLP's Big Thunder incident), meaning they could essentially be made from paper mache and would be just fine. If there's no live load being applied to them from movement, and minimal dead loads from the structure itself, the structure can be surprisingly lightweight. it's a small world used this very approach for a fast & cheap build before the World's Fair, but those set pieces and props are doing fine 50+ years later.

The only potential logic I can think of is that WDI has been under fire recently for having too much overhead cost. By over-designing elements of projects with massive budgets like this, it helps them hide their high costs as being relatively smaller in comparison to the construction cost, even if that construction is unnecessary. When vertical construction began, I commented that the cross-bracing was massive for a warehouse-type building, which would seem to follow the general idea of this whole thing being incredibly over-designed (for whatever reason). Obviously I'm not running any calculations, nor have I even seen the structure in person, but from my position there seems to be something going on that we don't know about

EDIT: I know that "value engineering" gets a (mistakenly) bad reputation around these parts as being an excuse to cut show elements, but that's typically something that comes in the budgeting phase of a project. In fact, this is a perfect example of where value engineering could and should be applied, reducing the construction costs and structural loads, while still providing the exact same end product to guests, which in turn frees up more money to be spent elsewhere. It really makes me wonder what's going on with this project...

Sorry if I missed the answer to this since I've skipped a couple pages here and there, but are we 100% sure that's structural steel being used on the body of the AT-ATs? They could be some sort of Aluminum or even Fiberglass structural shapes that give the appearance of steel with a fraction of the weight.

 

[Deleted member 107043]

I'll be happy to answer any questions, though most people here seem to have a pretty good grasp of everything going on.

By "most people" you obviously aren't referring to me.

 

[Phroobar]

Sorry if I missed the answer to this since I've skipped a couple pages here and there, but are we 100% sure that's structural steel being used on the body of the AT-ATs? They could be some sort of Aluminum or even Fiberglass structural shapes that give the appearance of steel with a fraction of the weight.

I don't think anyone has confirmed the type of material being used. It's mostly just people talking out of their

 

[Curious Constance]

By "most people" you obviously aren't referring to me.

Hahaha!

I know what a hammer and nails look like, but that's about the extent of my construction knowledge.

 

[vancee]

Ha. I'm actually a licensed Structural P.E. in New York, though I've done a lot more lurking than posting. I'll be happy to answer any questions, though most people here seem to have a pretty good grasp of everything going on.

Nice, what grade do you teach P.E.?

 

[flynnibus]

Sorry if I missed the answer to this since I've skipped a couple pages here and there, but are we 100% sure that's structural steel being used on the body of the AT-ATs? They could be some sort of Aluminum or even Fiberglass structural shapes that give the appearance of steel with a fraction of the weight.

Mainly because from our perspective we can see.. it's one size all the way around. So it looks to be uniform in material.. which pretty much eliminates fiberglass.. and aluminum might be viable, but at what cost to make huge drawn beams like that? And still doesn't explain why not using more conventional dimensional stuff like tubes. From photos the pieces look to be like 8"-10" tall.. that's pretty damn big for superficial body shaping. And why it stood out so much.

One might see it being stamped metal pieces...(like you see in commercial walls, or cheaper assembled sheet metal, etc) that would explain the size of the pieces.. but that couldn't be the big weight bearing pieces and the lack of distinction between the different areas works against that theory too. But it could just all be primed/coated in a way we can't see the differences from here.

 

[180º]

I agree with what has been said about the strangeness of the AT AT construction so far, but I'll play devil's advocate here for a second. I wonder if perhaps there will be an animatronic or other sort of prop mounted to or suspended from the AT ATs? Or maybe they will house equipment that will need to be serviced by mechanics? Point being, they may function as structural platforms and not just props.

Also, lest we forget, this may not be the most over-engineered thing in Disney history. The American Adventure is an example of extremely cautious engineering, with the deepest reaching foundations in Walt Disney World. And don't forget what under-engineering can lead to.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I agree with what has been said about the strangeness of the AT AT construction so far, but I'll play devil's advocate here for a second. I wonder if perhaps there will be an animatronic or other sort of prop mounted to or suspended from the AT ATs? Or maybe they will house equipment that will need to be serviced by mechanics? Point being, they may function as structural platforms and not just props.

Also, lest we forget, this may not be the most over-engineered thing in Disney history. The American Adventure is an example of extremely cautious engineering, with the deepest reaching foundations in Walt Disney World. And don't forget what under-engineering can lead to.

So, I guess the intention for overbuilding is because the AT-ATs will be hanging from the ceiling and shooting at us.

 

[britain]

It's possible that the heads are interior supports for larger head 'shells' that will move side to side around the inner structure

 

[Andrew M]

Mainly because from our perspective we can see.. it's one size all the way around. So it looks to be uniform in material.. which pretty much eliminates fiberglass.. and aluminum might be viable, but at what cost to make huge drawn beams like that? And still doesn't explain why not using more conventional dimensional stuff like tubes.

Well, they do make fiberglass structural shapes like beams, plates and angles that when finished look exactly like primed and painted steel and then can be bolted together to look like that. However you're right it, probably would be faster and cheaper just to have it built in plain ol' steel. Like you said there are some larger but fairly lightweight steel sections that could be selected that have the same appearance as heavier grade steel.

Perhaps there's a part of the ride that one of the sides gets blasted and the insides are exposed which would explain why it looks like that, or if they do indeed move around than that would also be a good reason.

 

[flynnibus]

I think people are setting themselves up for disappointment with all these theories on big movement on these AT-ATs.

 

[180º]

I think people are setting themselves up for disappointment with all these theories on big movement on these AT-ATs.

?? I couldn't care less. I was just thinking of reasons why they would build it out of structural steel.

When it comes to Star Wars Land, I'm here for the construction, not the result. I'm really not looking forward to this becoming a part of Disneyland, but that discussion is for the Wookiee and Rebels thread.