Dune Raiders slides coming to Legoland

Legoland California will be installing new side-by-side racing slides to the Land of Adventure area in time for the Fourth of July weekend.

The slide's primary draw will be its competition-based nature. The 30-foot-high slide will feature six slide lanes where guests - adults and children - can race in burlap potato sacks down 50-feet and a pair of double-helix corkscrews. The attraction will be themed to fit the area's Egyptian bazaar motif.

The Land of Adventure area opened in spring 2008 as part of the $20-million expansion approved for Carlsbad park. Carlsbad's Planning Commission unanimously consented to the plans for the project early last week.

"That's what we needed approval-wise ... now we just have to start building it," Legoland spokeswoman Beth Downing told North Count Times last Friday, "It'll be very fun (and) heavily themed."

"The slide is dry and riders use mats to slide down, similar to a large undulating surface slide at the San Diego County Fair," a staff report prepared for last week's Planning Commission meeting states.