Originally posted by blackhand1001
B&M's prices are getting out of control. 30 million. That is more than Leviathan costed. Nitro costed 20 million and was much larger, taller, and required a lot more steel and land.
When did Nitro open? I'll tell you, it opened in 2001. You're missing the 12 years of inflation that makes this ride more expensive. Also, Leviathan cost 28 million so Gatekeeper's 30 million is not showing B&M prices going up to out of control areas. Plus as others mentioned, you had to demo Disaster Transport and the Space Spiral to make way for Gatekeeper and that us added in along with the new entrance design. And don't think for a second that it costs a ton of money to cut down and plant trees. You could certainly find a crew to cut down and remove a few trees for a small price. Perhaps as low as 20 to 30 grand. Planting a tree or two can't cost more then a few hundred dollars per tree so I'd say that .75% of Nitro's budget was tree removal/transplanting.
Also, swamp land and beach/sand are very different to build on. I am no structural engineer but I doubt you'd have to be one to know that. I would think that swamp land is harder to build on so I'll give you that point.
You really can't use Nitro to make any point here since the US economy has been crap the last decade or so since the war started, and not to get political or anything but, Obama really is not doing anything to get it moving again. Remember, way is this ride so much? Because the US dollar is barley worth the paper its printed on. IE: Inflation.