Sandcastle Waterpark is a

water park A water park (or waterpark, water world) is an amusement park that features water play areas such as swimming pools, water slides, splash pads, water playgrounds, and lazy rivers, as well as areas for floating, bathing, swimming, and other baref ...

located in the

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

suburb of

West Homestead West Homestead is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh, on the Monongahela River. Heavy industries associated with nearby steel mills existed here. Established were axle works, brickworks, and manufactories of mac ...

. The park is located on a piece of land along the banks of the

Monongahela River The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-cen ...

. Sandcastle is owned by Palace Entertainment, subsidiary of Spain-based

Parques Reunidos Parques Reunidos (meaning "Reunited Parks") is an international entertainment operator based in Madrid, Spain. The group operates over 60 parks in about dozen countries. Parques Reunidos operates theme and amusement parks, zoos, water parks, fam ...

, who purchased original parent company Kennywood Entertainment. The company runs its original sister parks,

Kennywood Kennywood is an amusement park located in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, just southeast of Pittsburgh. The park opened on May 30, 1899, as a trolley park attraction at the end of the Mellon family's Monongahela Street Railway. It was purchased in 1 ...

, Idlewild Park, and

Lake Compounce Lake Compounce is an amusement park located in Bristol and Southington, Connecticut. Opened in 1846, it is the oldest continuously operating amusement park in the United States. It spans , which includes a beach and a water park called Crocodile ...

. The park contains fourteen water slides, several

swimming pools A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built above ground (a ...

, and a handful of other attractions.

History

The site where Sandcastle currently sits was formerly a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

yard for U.S. Steel. In 1988, Kennywood Entertainment bought the land and began construction on the park. Sandcastle officially opened for business in July 1989.

Current Attractions

The park has a total of 14 water slides including 3 speed slides. Other slides include the Blue Tooba Looba (which replaced Bermuda Triangle, the only closed slide in the park), Thunder Run, Tubers Tower and Cliffhangers. Other attractions at Sandcastle include a "lazy river," a large swimming pool, Mon-Tsunami, a

wave pool A wave pool is a swimming pool in which there are artificially generated, large waves, similar to those of the ocean. Wave pools are often a major feature of water parks, both indoors and outdoors, as well as some leisure centres. History T ...

, and an area of water slides and water attractions designed specifically for children called Wet Willies. The park also features an entertainment complex called The Sandbar. In January 2007, the

Chevrolet Amphitheatre The Trib Total Media Amphitheatre was an outdoor music pavilion at Station Square in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The venue had a seating capacity of 5,000 people. In January 2007 it was announced that the amphitheatre would change its name to " ...

, formerly known as the IC Light Amphitheatre, under plans by concert promoter Live Nation, was disassembled. According to new design plans, the new amphitheater will rest between Sandcastle's west perimeter and the Waterfront section of Homestead Borough along the Monongahela River. Sandcastle already had an existing amphitheatre on the property, but was outdated and was seldom used.

Former Attractions

The only slide ever removed was where The Blue TubaLuba is today. It was called "The Bermuda Triangle". It was a body slide; however, it had the same structure as a tube slide. Early in its life, Sandcastle also offered a miniature golf course, a go-kart track and beach volleyball courts; they have since been replaced by the Mon Tsunami wave pool and Dragon's Den slide respectively, although the sand pit leftover from the courts is still next to the Dragon's Den attraction.

Location

The park is located in West Homestead, a suburb of Pittsburgh. The water park is located down the road from

the Waterfront The Waterfront is a super-regional open air shopping mall spanning the three boroughs of Homestead, West Homestead, and Munhall near Pittsburgh. The shopping mall sits on land once occupied by U.S. Steel's Homestead Steel Works plant, which c ...

, a large shopping complex with stores, restaurants, and movie theaters. The park can be easily accessed via

Interstate 376 Interstate 376 (I-376) is a major auxiliary route of the Interstate Highway System in the US state of Pennsylvania, located within the Allegheny Plateau. It runs from I-80 near Sharon south and east to a junction with the Pennsylvania T ...

, and one PAT Transit bus line, the 59 Mon Valley (which also runs past Sandcastle's sister park Kennywood) runs near the park, but does not run up to it.

External links

Official website
{{Parques Reunidos Water parks in Pennsylvania Buildings and structures in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Tourist attractions in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Tourist attractions in Pittsburgh 1989 establishments in Pennsylvania Palace Entertainment Amusement parks opened in 1989