World record-breaking coaster rides into Six Flags in Arlington thanks to Fort Worth companies

Arthur Calcaterra worked at Six Flags Over Texas selling snacks through high school and college when the Titan, a record-setting hypercoaster, was under construction at the park in 2001. 

Now, he is leading the team designing the site of Six Flags’ latest record-breaking coaster, the Tormenta Rampaging Run, with Quorum Architects. The new ride, set to open in 2026, will be the tallest, fastest and longest dive coaster in the world once construction is complete, according to a Six Flags news release. 

“To go from that almost 25-year arc of being at the park — to see the Titan’s construction go up to now being a part of another giga coaster — is monumental,” Calcaterra said. 

Fort Worth roots for the Arlington park and coaster run deep. 

Quorum Architects, founded in Fort Worth in 1992, has worked with Six Flags for years. 

The firm’s work revolves around strategizing how to fit a new ride on the grounds while optimizing the space. Calcaterra helped lead planning on Six Flags’ Aquaman Power Wave project and the Dino Off-Road Adventure in the past. 

Tormenta’s Rampaging Run was designed by Switzerland-based Bolliger & Mabillard, who also created the Batman ride at the park, according to Roller Coaster DataBase.

This new project will be unique compared to others the park has built in recent years. 

With a height of 309 feet and a length of 4,199 feet, the coaster falls under the classification of a giga coaster. A giga coaster is a complete-circuit roller coaster that is between 300 and 399 feet tall. Currently, there are only seven such coasters operating in the world. 

Calcaterra said the key to getting the park and space ready for a coaster of Tormenta’s size is hiring those who have experience with Six Flags Over Texas. 

“It’s pulling together a good team of people that understand the park, understand what it is to work with a theme park and to work on any project,” Calcaterra said. “All those help make this project successful.” 

Six Flags also tapped Fort Worth-based H3 Construction to build the concrete foundation for the ride. 

Cesar Ortiz, president of H3 Construction, said his company worked with Six Flags on the Joker, Riddler and Catwoman Whip rides over the years. 

While other companies create the foundational plans to keep these rides structurally stable, Ortiz’s company puts those plans into action. 

“It’s a major undertaking,” Ortiz said. 

Ortiz said that, as a resident and a business owner in Fort Worth, he is proud that his city has a large part in bringing what will be a historic coaster to the region. 

“The fact that Arlington or Six Flags would reach out to Fort Worth is no surprise to me,” Ortiz said. “I know how great a lot of the contractors, engineers and architects in this area are.”

Calcaterra said the project is the first that Quorum has used new software called Autodesk Revit to envision what the area around the coaster would look like. 

The new software allows the company to render the ride into a 3D model, so architects and engineers can test where things need to be and make sure nothing interferes with the ride. 

“We pushed our team to do the project in that program, which we do a lot of other things in,” Calcaterra said. “It was the first time we put one of our roller coaster projects in that, which was great because we were able to see any interferences immediately.” 

Work on the Spain area of the park, where the coaster will reside, has begun. The park is so named after the six countries whose flags flew over the state.

Calcaterra said the area around the coaster will be “transformed” to match the theme of the coaster, along with a new restaurant, which he also had a hand in designing. 

A rendering shows what the new restaurant, Cocina Abuela, may look like once completed. (Courtesy image | Quorum Architects)

Ideally, Calcaterra said, this new attraction will rate next to the FIFA World Cup and the IndyCar Grand Prix of Arlington as events that bring people to Arlington. 

“You drive down I-30 and you see Cowboys Stadium, Globe Life, Choctaw (Stadium) and you see the Titan,” Calcaterra said. “This is going to rival the hype of the Titan. Every time someone drives, they’ll see it. It will make an imprint on the city of Arlington for quite a while.”

Chris Moss is a reporting fellow for the Arlington Report. Contact him at chris.moss@fortworthreport.org.

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