Kings Island’s dinosaur project puts area man in time crunch

Nick Daggy/Staff photographer The layout of Kings Island's new Dinosaur Alive Park.

Construction equipment works to clear a pathway for Kings Island's new Dinosaur Alive Park Wednesday, March 29, 2011, near a haunted trail used during the park's seasonal Halloween Haunt.

Nick Daggy/Staff photographer Construction equipment works to clear a pathway for Kings Island's new Dinosaur Alive Park Wednesday, March 29, 2011, near a haunted trail used during the park's seasonal Halloween Haunt.

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Photos: KI's new dinosaur park

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Jeff Gramke, Manager of Facility, Engineering and Construction for Kings Island, is currently overseeing the construction of the Dinosaur Alive Park, one of the park's newest ventures. Gramke is one of two designers who worked on The Beast ride.

Nick Daggy/Staff photographer Jeff Gramke, Manager of Facility, Engineering and Construction for Kings Island, is currently overseeing the construction of the Dinosaur Alive Park, one of the park's newest ventures. Gramke is one of two designers who worked on The Beast ride.

By Emiko Moore, Contributing Writer Updated 7:40 AM Tuesday, April 5, 2011

WARREN COUNTY — It took hundreds of millions of years for dinosaurs to make their way to Ohio’s Largest Playground, and a Mason man has been given just a few months to make their new home, well, home.

Creating an outdoor environment for about 60 life-sized dinosaurs, in an area called Dinosaur Alive Park, is the task at hand for Jeff Gramke, manager of facilities, engineering, and construction at Kings Island. He admits it’s unusual to have this type of project done so quickly, but in his 39 years with the amusement park, Gramke said “We’ve never missed a deadline yet.”

He is also overseeing the construction of new ride The WindSeeker, a 301-foot tall swing that Gramke says spins like a centrifuge.

Gramke has been with Kings Island since it was built in 1971, working part time while studying civil engineering at the University of Cincinnati and then hired full time when the park opened in 1972. He has been involved in the planning and construction of every addition to the park since.

Gramke and colleague Al Collins can be attributed for the design of the Beast, the world’s longest wooden roller coaster that has thrilled park patrons since the late 1970s. In the days before computer-aided design or drafting, the pair painstakingly did each calculation using only slide rules and log books.

“It was very labor intensive,” Gramke said. For every change they made while building the 7,400-foot coaster, they had to recalculate everything from that changed area, to the end of the coaster, he said.

In order for the Dinosaur Alive Park to be ready for its opening May 26, Gramke and area managers Sam Burriss and Bob Schiering maintain a hectic pace. They are overseeing the transformation of the 12.5 acres of wooded area behind The Racer roller coaster into a prehistoric dinosaur park set sometime between 245 million to 65 million years ago.

So far, Gramke has hired six local contractors, including Cardinal Landscaping from Lebanon, to help prepare the area. The tough winter and recent rains have slowed down the construction schedule, but as the weather improves, contractors are able to continue grading and leveling the wooded area.

One area already cleared will be a replica of a paleontological dig site, and will allow children to “unearth fossils.” Gramke said they still have to lay gravel and excavate and lay foundations for the huge creatures that will be built on site, some weighing up to 5,000 pounds.

One enormous dinosaur, the Ruyang Yellow River dinosaur, was 30 feet high and 78 feet long.

The winter months are even busier for Gramke, as he and his Kings Island crews have to rebuild all pumps and plumbing systems, do fiberglass repairs, repaint rides as well as the maintenance and upkeep of buildings.

When he is not working, Gramke said he and his wife of 37 years, Jill, like to go boating in their small yacht on the Ohio River and spend time with their two children and five grandchildren.

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