Its fiberglass troughs may be worn and its lift belt has clearly seen better days, but logs are still cycling and guests are still loving their visits to the Le Scoot Lumber Company. Thanks to Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s incredible maintenance team and the marvels of Arrow engineering, the classic flume ride is still running. We pick up our story roughly five or six years after Le Scoot was originally slated for removal. The park concluded that they would keep their old log flume running until the Grim Reaper inevitably came knocking. As a result, Le Scoot was allowed to continue limping along. Sometime during Project 2007’s planning process, it was decided that Busch Gardens Williamsburg would be better off removing Le Mans and building their new coaster, Griffon, in Aquitaine. More importantly to this article, the previous paragraphs correctly characterize the struggles Busch Gardens Williamsburg has endured to keep Le Scoot running, as well as the state of the attraction before its renovation. That said, according to Larry Giles, the three paragraphs above accurately represent the original plans for Williamsburg’s 2007 roller coaster addition. If you hadn’t gathered this yet, most of what you just read never ended up occurring. So yes, while it is a shame to see Le Scoot go, the sad reality is that it cannot continue to operate unless the park rebuilds the attraction from the ground up. Unfortunately, that’s an unrealistic proposition with next to no return on investment. For a park as concerned about the environment as Busch Gardens Williamsburg, you can see why this is a problem. If all of this weren’t enough, Le Scoot has another serious problem as well: The basin below the attraction has a number of leaks. Because Le Scoot recirculates the water that splashes down into its ground-level basin, whenever contaminants run into the pool, it must be completely drained, cleaned, and then refilled. As a result of clogged drainage pipes, overflows aren’t uncommon either. The pool below the attraction is set at the base of a U-shaped ravine and whenever the park experiences a large rain storm, dirt and debris runs down the sides of the valley and into the pool below. Furthermore, the ride’s location has long been a problem. The fiberglass flumes, the steel supports, and even some of the foundations are all quickly deteriorating. We are all a bit sad to see Le Scoot go, but it truly has reached the end of its life. After its removal, the beautiful ravine between New France and Rhinefeld will have plenty of extra room for a new roller coaster. Better yet? The timing is perfect-BGW’s aging Arrow log flume, Le Scoot, is on its last legs. The park’s Canadian-themed area has never featured a roller coaster, but BGW has decided that it is time to change that. Busch Gardens Williamsburg is planning to add a huge new Bolliger & Mabillard Dive Machine to the park’s New France hamlet. The eye-opening insight he gave us into the project is truly astounding and we can’t possibly thank him enough for it. Finally, we will close with some major new exclusive information about what to expect from this classic log flume when it opens in 2016.īefore I move on to all of that though, I need to take a moment to thank Larry Giles for making this post possible. The next section will be dedicated to explaining what the park has done for the ride over the last four years. In this post, we will start by running through Le Scoot’s recent history and explain what lead to this massive undertaking.

What we learned through that informal interview conveyed to us, without the slightest doubt, that the sentiment referenced in the paragraph above was not only well deserved, but possibly even selling the park short. From the beginning of this project, BGWFans has expressed time and time again how impressed we are that the park is making the investments required to restore this 1975 park original.Ī few days ago BGWFans met with Larry Giles, Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s Vice President of Engineering, specifically to discuss the Le Scoot project. As many of you know, Busch Gardens Williamsburg has spent the last three years renovating the park’s 41 year-old Arrow log flume, Le Scoot.

Log flume ride at busch gardens