Carowinds Fury 325 shut down over foundation issue 3 years after pillar crack
Carowinds’ Fury 325 roller coaster, one of the world’s tallest, has been closed for a week for a repair, the park revealed in a statement late Tuesday. It’s the second time in three years the popular coaster has had to close because of safety concerns.
During a routine maintenance inspection on July 7, an issue with a ride foundation was identified, Carowinds said in a statement released a little after 9 p.m. Tuesday, July 14. The park closed the ride on July 7, notified state amusement park regulators and began the repair process, Carowinds said.
“We initiated a series of corrective measures out of an abundance of caution,” the park added in its statement.
The foundation issue did not impact guest safety, according to Carowinds, which did not provide details about the nature of the foundation issue.
The ride will remain closed until the repairs are done, Carowinds said, although officials did not provide a timetable for when that would happen. That leaves the amusement park on the border of the Carolinas in Charlotte and Rock Hill without one of its signature attractions at the height of its busy summer season.
Carowinds noted that the safety of its visitors and workers “is a top priority.”
The brief statement from Carowinds made no mention of the 2023 issues.
Carowinds fans posted on Carowinds Fans Only Facebook page on Tuesday that a fence had been added around Fury 325, and wondered what was going with the ride.
A park spokesperson was not immediately available late Tuesday.
Some Carowinds visitors were upset the park did not announce the roller coaster was closed sooner.
“People fly across the country to ride Fury 325 spend lots of money on flight, hotel, food etc to spend a day at Carowinds to ride Fury just to get there to find out its broke down MAKE AN ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!,” one irate park visitor said July 10 on X.
Carowinds Fury 325 closed three seasons ago for repairs
Three seasons ago, Fury 325 also had to close for repairs.
Fury 325 closed for about six weeks in June 2023 after a park visitor spotted a broken support beam as a cart full of riders went by the pillar. A second crack, or break, was found a month later during a state agency inspection.
Bolliger & Mabillard Consulting Engineers Inc., the Swiss company that designed and built the roller coaster, had to replace the steel column. The ride reopened in August 2023 after extensive testing, including a third-party testing firm for final inspection.
At the time, the park was owned by Ohio-based Cedar Fair.
About Six Flags and Carowinds
In July 2025, Six Flags and Carowinds completed an $8 billion merger. Combined under Six Flags, the headquarters is now at 8701 Red Oak Blvd in Charlotte, about five miles northeast of Carowinds.
Six Flags has about 155 workers at its Charlotte office, and Carowinds has around 2,700 total employees at peak season.
Six Flags has struggled with debt and declining park attendance, and reported a net revenue loss of $1.6 billion last year. Six Flags’ new CEO and president, John Reilly, replaced Richard Zimmerman in December.
In March, Six Flags agreed to sell seven of its amusement parks for $331 million to real estate investment firm EPR Properties as part of the company’s strategy to strengthen its operations on parks with growth potential and pay down debt.
And in April, Bridgette Bywater was named park president of Carowinds. Bywater has decades of experience in the industry as general manager of Kings Dominion and Soak City water park in Doswell, Virginia, and as corporate director of operations for Cedar Fair.
