Epcot almost sunk. (Part of it)

Crafty

Active Member
I'll be honest....in the back of my mind, I have always been a little nervous about the possibility of sink-holes devastating the parks.
Though I'm sure, hopefully, all of this was all taken care off and looked into eons ago.

...I've always been worried about a hurricane destroying the parks.... We all have our problems!;)

Lately I have been worried about Disney management destroying the parks, especially Future World. Oh...wait a minute...
 

Gary Pretty

New Member
Ok, first post :) Been lurking on these forums for a long time, but I thought I would chime in with something here.

This sounds pretty believable to me and especially given the comments from D23 seen here (about half way down the page) http://articles.orlandosentinel.com...t-international-food-world-showcase-food-wine. Apparently a sink hole between FW and WS was a bit of a problem when building the park.

Anyway, thought it was worth mentioning.
 

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
Why didn't they just turn the water off before the sinkhole started?

Eh, not planning on hitting a water main when working, then figure it takes a few minutes for the worker to start the notification process, then another 5-10 for maintenance/facilities to get to the proper shut off point. 10-20 mins easily elapsed which could be more then enough for something to start.
 

alphac2005

Well-Known Member
Happens all the time around here. The water mains are old, and they have been replacing them with PVC. But when one breaks, it washes out all of the sand underneath the road, and forms a hole. Once in a while a car will fall into one if it is driving over it when it happens.

Lots of water mains in the 80's and early 90's were made of polybutylene and they've been notorious for failing. They were supposed to last for many years and were a low cost alternative to copper. Of course, they've been a massive failure. Our neighborhood over the past three years has seen the water department come to the majority of the homes as they've had to replace those connections at the water main valve for each house as they've literally exploded in the heat. What was supposed to save tons of money has cost water departments a fortune throughout the country.
 

Mammymouse

Well-Known Member
I can't believe I didn't take a photo but when I was there for the Flower and Garden festival, one area down by the lake looked like a sinkhole had swallowed up the flowers that were part of the giant flowerscape surrounding the lake. They had orange netting up around it to keep workers out. This is on the lake side of the path. It happened on its own after the flowers had been planted since they were all falling down into the hole. Sorry, no photo.

I saw the same thing - it was on the opposite side of the walkway that led to the butterfly garden. We saw it May 10th. I thought I took a picture but I must have deleted it. The wash out was definitely inside the waterside garden and I thought it was a sprinkler blow out from the previous night the way the flowers and dirt were eroded. Last Sunday we were in EPCOT again and saw that entire area where the butterfly garden was is all blocked off with the semi-permanent wooden walls, and from a distance you could see a rather large earth moving track machine inside atop a huge pile of dirt.
 

R W B

Well-Known Member
For everyone saying they hope when Epcot was built they did the proper surveys and whatnot involving sinkholes to prevent anymore from happening, google "Corvette museum sinkhole". That place is only 20-25 yrs old and they did all the proper sinkhole evaluations before construction begin but that didnt stop their giant sinkhole from forming a few months ago. Lets hope a natural one doesn't hit WDW.
 

Monorail_Red_77

Well-Known Member
I believe the butterfly garden moved over behind club cool a couple years ago and behind mousegears was a smaller playground
Yes shiny, you are correct. I too saw the hole near the waters edge. It is basically across the walkway from the butterfly house. I think I may have a pic of the hole in the flowerbed, will try to locate it.
 

Monorail_Red_77

Well-Known Member
IMG_6094.JPG
IMG_6170.JPG

Here are some pics of the hole in flower bed across the walkway from the butterfly house. The pics were taken May 10th 2014. Rumor has it that it is a new attraction "Journey to the Center of the Earth", LOL.
 

The Visionary Soul

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
That's it?? We're having a discussion about that?

That is a glorified pot hole from NY! I thought it was something big.

Move along- nothing to see here.
That's the tiny one before they hit the pipe... does anyone have the current construction site photos? It's a pretty huge mess. Much bigger than that tiny hole.
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
Eh, not planning on hitting a water main when working, then figure it takes a few minutes for the worker to start the notification process, then another 5-10 for maintenance/facilities to get to the proper shut off point. 10-20 mins easily elapsed which could be more then enough for something to start.
I think that if there is any part of the problem that might be called into question it would be the part about outside sources hitting and breaking the water main. Those things, quite often don't, need any help. If the water can find an escape, which I would imagine are plentiful around the Disney Property, then it would just erode away under the sod and wouldn't be hugely evident until a weight was placed above it and it would then collapse. The water might not even find it's way to the surface until something opened it up.

Seems sort of like the olden days before coffins were put in concrete containers. When the coffin rotted it would collapse due to the weight above it and all of a sudden you have this big "dent" in the ground.
 

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