Bigfoot Snow Tubing
Tubing Without Limits: No Snow? No Problem!
Our crew was at it again – helping bring another exciting attraction to life! The Bigfoot Snow Tubing attraction in the Wisconsin Dells area offers year-round delights, thanks to an innovative tubing experience that requires no snow.
The General Engineering Company (GEC) team played a crucial role in making this project a reality, with our surveying, structural, and civil engineering teams working together to ensure precision, safety, and functionality.
Engineering the Experience
The project began with our surveying team, which captured topographic data and performed construction staking. Given the complexity of the slide’s support system, precise placement of the piers was critical to ensure proper alignment with our structural team’s column designs.
Our structural engineers designed the steel columns and beams for the slide’s support structure, as well as the wood joists and columns for the tower and portions of the slide itself. The foundation designs required careful planning, particularly for the piers supporting the columns. A key challenge was the top-deck platform, which needed to extend over water. To achieve this, our team incorporated a cantilevered design – a structure supported on one end wile extending freely on the other – allowing for a 23′ x 23′ deck without placing two of the support columns in the water.
Meanwhile, our civil engineering team focused on designing the parking lot, curb, and gutter system surrounding the attraction, as well as the necessary concrete work to complete the site.
A Thrill Ride Like No Other
Riders start their adventure from a towering 36-foot-high deck platform, where they can take in views of the water before racing down the slide. To reach the top, riders can hop on a “magic carpet” conveyor belt, eliminating the need to climb five flights of stairs.
One of the most fascinating aspects of this project was calculating the slide’s velocity profile. Our team, along with the recommendations from the slide manufacturer, carefully designed the structure to ensure riders could reach exhilarating speeds of up to 35 mph, fast enough for a thrill but controlled for safety. With a 350-foot total length from the top deck platform to the tube runout area, maintaining a perfect balance between excitement and safety was key to preventing riders from overshooting the slide.
With precise engineering and innovative design, GEC helped create a safe and fun experience for visitors to “snow” tube in the Wisconsin Dells year-round.
Let the snow tubing thrills begin!
Fun Features
The Bigfoot Snow Tubing attraction features four lanes, allowing family and friends to race side by side, providing a fun experience for all ages.
Collaborations
- Kaenel Construction – all the steel fabrication
- mSnow – tube slide provider – synthetic snow surface that allows you to tube year-round / tubing lanes are water-free
- StarLifts – moving carpet provider – person conveyor belt
- SunKid – tube provider
