'Ark Encounter' Not the Economic Boom They Expected.

[PickelledEggs]

qft

[stromboli]

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/07/31/noahs-ark-replica-ark-encounter-kentucky-builder/

Colorado Timberframe employees worked 24 hours a day, six days a week for 11 months straight, cutting wood to build the largest freestanding timber-frame structure in the world: a life-size replica of Noah’s Ark, as described in the Bible.

The crew sent 180 semi-trucks filled with timber components to Williamstown, Ky., where they oversaw construction of the Ark Encounter, a sister attraction to Answers In Genesis‘ Creation Museum about an hour away.

“It was an amazing honor,” said Colorado Timberframe president Keenan Tompkins. “No one has done this before.”

“Except for Noah,” joked Jason Schimpf, lead installer.

“And it’s been a while,” Tompkins quipped.

The first phase of the Ark Encounter cost $91 million. The ark has exhibits housed inside its hull and stands 15 feet above the ground, held up by concrete buried 30 feet deep. The timber weighs 4.2 million pounds. The Ark Encounter has advertised that the ark is 510 feet long, but Colorado Timberframe said it’s actually 6 inches shy of 550 feet.

The ark’s design is based on dimensions from the Biblical story of Noah, who was told by God to build an ark and fill it with animals so they, and his family, could survive a worldwide flood. But this ark is slightly different from the one described in the Bible, Tomkins said. “I can guarantee you it will not float.”

The ark was a hefty endeavor for Colorado Timberframe’s team, which normally numbers 45 people. Crews worked around the clock at the company’s Lafayette headquarters while Schimpf oversaw the installation in Kentucky. The entire ark project took 18 months to complete. The attraction opened earlier this month.

To meet the deadline, additional workers and specialists were required. Tompkins said about 1,000 people worked on the project overall, with more than 300 people working on site at one time.

Schimpf, who moved his family to Kentucky and home-schooled his kids while working on the ark, said construction was on a tight but organized schedule. Once a truck came in, the crew unload it and immediately put it into production. The teams in Kentucky and Colorado were in constant communication.

“We did a lot of knocking on wood,” Tompkins said, walking over to a pile of wood and tapping it. “Even now I want to do it even though it’s over.”

The giant ark and its 1.2 million board feet of square timber required a lot of trees. Tompkins said the team used a lot of responsibly harvested Douglas fir from Washington, Utah and Canada.

Answers in Genesis also wanted large logs to hold up parts of the boat, the largest being nearly 5 feet in diameter. To meet the specification, they found standing-dead Engelmann spruce trees in a Utah forest that were 200 years old, Tompkins said.

Part of the reason Colorado Timberframe won the bid for the project was because it is one of only a few companies in North America to have a machine big enough to work with the large materials.

Schimpf said he read about the ark in the paper about 2 1/2 years ago and told Tompkins that they couldn’t miss this opportunity.

Building the ark was hard work, but Tompkins and Schimpf said the complicated part was maintaining their regular business. The company did about 55 other projects last year.

The company mainly does high-end residential work and only a few commercial projects. Tomkins and Schimpf said they hope the ark has raised Colorado Timberframe’s profile, so it can do more commercial projects.

A spokeswoman with Colorado Timberframe said the company has already received more calls since the project and some clients like to brag to friends that their house was built by the same people who built the ark.

“If we can do the ark, we can do anything,” Schimpf said. “We knew we could do anything, we just proved it.”

UPDATED This story was updated at 1:22 p.m. Aug. 1, 2016, to clarify that Colorado Timberframe did about 55 projects in addition to the Ark Encounter last year.

1.2 million board feet and timbers 5 feet in diameter, weighs 4.2 million pounds. So Noah essentially found the equivalent of 3 forests and managed to turn trees into usable lumber with a neolithic sawmill? Good job. Yup, could happen. I said awhile ago that the internal structural support necessary for a ship that size would considerably reduce usable space.





Weighs 4.2 million pounds with fiberglass replica animals. So put the weight of every large herbivore on there, throw in food and every other required essential, it would add mucho tonnage to the vessel. Float? Not likely.

(EDIT) Read the comments on the article. Priceless.  

[Gawdzilla Sama]

More than that. The internal subdivisions are not there. You'd have to keep the predators in stout enclosures, same with the elephants, rhinos, Cape buffalo, etc.

[stromboli]

More than that. The internal subdivisions are not there. You'd have to keep the predators in stout enclosures, same with the elephants, rhinos, Cape buffalo, etc.

You would have to put the animals in suspended animation for 100 days to accomplish their task. But even then, interior space is not sufficient for large herbivores. And not mentioning dinosaurs. But god can do anything, so all that doesn't matter.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

You would have to put the animals in suspended animation for 100 days to accomplish their task. But even then, interior space is not sufficient for large herbivores. And not mentioning dinosaurs. But god can do anything, so all that doesn't matter.

More than 100 days. They floated around for 150 days, and then there's the time needed for the Earth to recover and the grazers to reproduce enough to have a sustainable population for the predators.

And, of course, the time needed for all those animals to change planes in Atlanta, DFW, and Denver on their way home to Australia, South America, etc.

[widdershins]

What the hell are you two talking about?  It almost sounds as if you're suggesting the whole story is just made up and utterly ridiculous (deserving or inviting derision or mockery. absurd).  Obviously you're not saying that.  The Grand Canyon, seashells on mountain tops, wood floats, it's in the Bible...  These things all prove the global flood.  And there are still animals, and us, so that proves a giant impossible boat happened.  I mean, this is all basic science.  It's totally indisputable.  So obviously you're not saying it didn't happen.  But from your conversation, it's almost as if you're questioning all of that common-sense stuff.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

One side of the Grand Canyon is several hundred feet higher than the other.

[Munch]

More than that. The internal subdivisions are not there. You'd have to keep the predators in stout enclosures, same with the elephants, rhinos, Cape buffalo, etc.

"Hurr, but god dun made dem animals all friends, yup!"

[Unbeliever]

I hope they tow it to Mr. Ararat and bury it.

I'd prefer they let it rot right where it stands (or crumbles) so that future generations will know the consequences of building such silly crap as the Ark.

[Baruch]

Actual archeology alla Kon Tiki ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNDSMZBpbdU

[widdershins]

One side of the Grand Canyon is several hundred feet higher than the other.

Exactly!  When all that water hit that big-ass cliff suddenly instead of being evenly spread out all of it was suddenly going one direction or the other, forming the canyon.  I knew you guys knew this stuff, the way you were talking was just weird.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Exactly!  When all that water hit that big-ass cliff suddenly instead of being evenly spread out all of it was suddenly going one direction or the other, forming the canyon.  I knew you guys knew this stuff, the way you were talking was just weird.

[widdershins]

It is so easy to just make this shit up as you go along.  ANYTHING proves you're right when you're not bothered by annoying things like "facts".

[Gawdzilla Sama]

It is so easy to just make this shit up as you go along.  ANYTHING proves you're right when you're not bothered by annoying things like "facts".