CORPUS CHRISTI — Work is continuing around the clock to finish the Schlitterbahn water park out on the island. Recent rain delays are causing a bit of a slowdown, but nothing substantial.

“They’re moving fast as you can see,” said General Manager Stan Hulse as he showed us around the park in progress.

Crews are working rain or shine. “Most of that dirt work is sand, so the water kind of seeps through it, so it may slow us down a little bit while it’s actually raining, but the crews can get right back out there,” Hulse said.

They’re also continuing construction around the clock. “We’ve even got a couple night crews that come in and do some work inside the clubhouse and so forth, so we’re taking advantage of all the time that we can,” explained Hulse.

The goal is to wrap up in time for Summer 2014. Behind the scenes, things are starting to take shape.

Hulse showed us a centerpiece area that will feature a river, a beach and a unique ride called ‘Shoot the Chute.’

“It goes down real fast and splashes water everywhere,” he described, adding it was similar to the type ride you might see at Disney.

While Hulse is excited about the progress, dozens of local workers are happy for the jobs. There are about 80 guys working construction there right now, about half of those are from the Coastal Bend. The plan is to hire even more before the job is complete. “We’ve got 80 now, I think you’ll see about a hundred later on and then as things move forward, they’ll be bringing in different crews for different aspects of the park,” said Hulse.

It’s a park that they hope will eventually bring big business to the Coastal Bend. As far as bringing business for local workers before that, though, there’s not an exact timeline just yet.

“There’s a lot of moving parts with this, mother nature plays a big part, there’s all sorts of different hurtles and obstacles as we move forward, a project this size, so right now, until we get a little bit closer, our official word is Summer of 2014 is when we’ll open,” Hulse said.

For more information and updates on the park and its progress, log onto the Schlitterbahn website.

via KRISTV.com