WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — The relatively warm and (so far) snow-free winter has been helpful for the construction workers at Busch Gardens Williamsburg as they continue to work on the park's newest attraction.
Park officials let the media -- and a few lucky fans -- behind the scenes on Thursday to show off the progress of Pantheon, a multi-launch roller coaster being constructed in the Festa Italia section of Busch Gardens.
Much of the track is now in place, including a 180-foot, 95-degree drop and a multi-track switch that will have riders go up a large vertical spike.
When completed, the park says Pantheon will become the fastest multi-launch roller coaster in the world reaching a top speed of 73 mph.
As its name implies, Pantheon will be themed around the Roman gods, although much of that theming has yet to be put in place. The pathway connecting Pantheon to the rest of the park, as well as the loading station, still have a lot of work to go before being completed.
The biggest question on many people's minds, however: is there an opening date?
That answer will have to wait for another day, unfortunately. While plenty of progress has been made, no specific opening date was given, just a Spring 2020 time frame.
Opening Day for the park this year will be March 15.
Busch Gardens Pantheon hard hat tour, 1/23/20
And as we look forward to Pantheon's completion in the coming months, we've also looked back and dug into the 13News Now archives, compiling a series of news reports showing the evolution of Busch Gardens' Italy section, from its first creation nearly 40 years ago to the thrilling addition of Tempesto in 2015: