Thought you knew everything about the construction of Wicker Man?

Alton Towers Resort’s iconic wooden roller coaster Wicker Man was in development for four years before opening to the public in March 2018. There was a lot of buzz surrounding the launch, as it is the first wooden coaster to be built in the UK for 21 years!

The construction was led by US based firm Greater Coasters International (GCI) and it took 40 container loads and 7,500 tonnes of wood to make the Wicker Man, with all the wood required for the roller coaster sourced sustainably in Pennsylvania.

More than 1,000 people worked on Wicker Man from conception until completion - that includes a whopping 500,000 man hours!

You can see the first piece of Wicker Man’s track being laid in the time lapse below in January 2017, with the final section of track being laid in November 2017. The track is over 2,000 feet long and is made up of nine layers of wood, with an amazing 1.8 million screws and 65,000 bolts used to secure the structure. The Wicker Man was safety tested over 500 times before opening to the public.

Watch the full build in action!