Concrete Foundation Design for Leviathan—The Tallest and Fastest Roller Coaster in Canada

Canada’s Wonderland (CW) is an amusement/theme park located in Vaughan, ON, Canada approximately 30 km north of downtown Toronto, ON. In 2011, CW retained R.V. Anderson Associates Limited (RVA) to provide consulting engineering services for the steel “giga-coaster” named Leviathan located within the Medieval Faire section of the park. Leviathan was designed by the Swiss firm Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) as their first roller coaster to exceed a height of 91.5 m (300 ft). As of February 2023, Leviathan is the tallest and fastest roller coaster in Canada standing 93 m (306 ft) tall and reaching a top speed of 148 km/h (92 mph). Leviathan is also ranked as the seventh tallest and eighth fastest steel roller coaster in the world. RVA’s structural services included designing concrete foundations for the roller coaster columns. This paper summarizes how RVA designed the concrete foundations for the columns. Topics of discussion include the following: CW background; planning and theming; design and construction team; ride features; information gathering; definition of load cases; calculation of maximum design forces; design of concrete beams/slabs; design of concrete piers; and project milestones. In total, RVA designed 237 concrete piers to support track columns. This required over 2400 m3 of cast-in-place concrete. The largest and deepest piers were 1830 mm in diameter and 12 m deep, respectively. Due to high vertical and horizontal forces generated by train dynamics, some track columns required grade beams or slabs with multiple piers underneath. A significant pier design challenge was avoiding the below-grade artesian-like sand layer, which would have required more complex and costly construction means/methods. Construction was successfully completed in April 2012, and Leviathan has been operational ever since.