Main Street U.S.A. hub redevelopment at the Magic Kingdom

dstrawn9889

dstrawn9889

Well-Known Member
IMHO, if you are unwilling to get out there with a shovel and help, then you have no business saying that a project is taking too long.
You cannot compare a large earth-moving job to installing some crap in a warehouse. soil has to be moved, set, compacted(often more than once) before it is stable enough to resist erosion and to have things erected on top of it... including a walkway pour. so enough with the comparisons and 'opinions' on why it is taking so long to complete.

Disney has contracts with these vendors, and they get docked money if they do not complete within the window agreed upon between both parties.
 
rioriz

rioriz

Well-Known Member
Look at the pace of Disney Springs to show contrast in their building schedules. SDMT is the most deliberate "conscious slowdown" of construction I have seen yet. I give Avatar some forgiveness due to the scale and need to stabilize the environment for such a huge undertaking.
 
TomHendricks

TomHendricks

Well-Known Member
I'll give you an example of two construction projects in our town. They are building two banks, directly across from each other. One is on higher ground, the other is lower laying area that tends to be marshy. They both started construction around the same time, give or take about a week. The Bank that is on the higher ground is almost completed on the outside. The Bank on the other side of the road, they are still trying to complete the foundation. Without know what the issues are, it looks like the Bank on the lower laying area is moving at a snails pace. However if you passed it everyday, like me. You would know about the shoring up of the soil, the driving of pylons and other stuff to just make the area stable to actually build the Bank.
 
dstrawn9889

dstrawn9889

Well-Known Member
rioriz said:
Look at the pace of Disney Springs to show contrast in their building schedules. SDMT is the most deliberate "conscious slowdown" of construction I have seen yet. I give Avatar some forgiveness due to the scale and need to stabilize the environment for such a huge undertaking.
Click to expand...
so building something for the first time with new ride technology (and the equivalent of two separate structures, completely isolated from each other, but interwoven) vs a couple of boxes made of steel and concrete? how can you compare the two?
 
rioriz

rioriz

Well-Known Member
dstrawn9889 said:
so building something for the first time with new ride technology (and the equivalent of two separate structures, completely isolated from each other, but interwoven) vs a couple of boxes made of steel and concrete? how can you compare the two?
Click to expand...


I am not claiming to have as much construction knowledge as you may have but it has been stated by several insiders that the Mine Train's construction could have gone faster had Disney not wanted to drag out the cost for fiscal year budgets. This has been a practice for Disney for some time now.

The technology portion of SDMT is one thing but the actual structure could have been put together much quicker. People hate to drag up history but look at the amount of time it took to create whole parks, with multiple new technology and structures vs. the time it took to put up the Mine Train.

Just look at Diagon Alley as a whole, Much more construction needed and BETTER new technology used and they completed the whole thing in as much time as SDMT.
 
aladdin2007

aladdin2007

Well-Known Member
this is bothering me more and more, found it over on the miceage mk photo update, is there at a plan at all for this spot? i know the hub project is ongoing but.....
DatelineDisneyWorld07282014-_DSC6080.jpg
 
Cesar R M

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
rioriz said:
Look at the pace of Disney Springs to show contrast in their building schedules. SDMT is the most deliberate "conscious slowdown" of construction I have seen yet. I give Avatar some forgiveness due to the scale and need to stabilize the environment for such a huge undertaking.
Click to expand...
wasn't the slowdown also due of the fact that it was built on a lagoon?
a coaster with vibration and pressure on a wet-prone area can convert the land into quicksands.
 
dstrawn9889

dstrawn9889

Well-Known Member
rioriz said:
The technology portion of SDMT is one thing but the actual structure could have been put together much quicker. People hate to drag up history but look at the amount of time it took to create whole parks, with multiple new technology and structures vs. the time it took to put up the Mine Train.
Click to expand...
yeah, but to build a park in a single year, they did not have such stringent inspections, did not have the building codes they do now, and most definitely did not have 15 million people walking through it at the time it was being built. they were building on an ISLAND in the middle of on stage, cut off from supplies and things they did not bring with them before the park opened, and tried to not make so much noise that people would be inconvenienced during their 100.00/day trip to DW. i am sure that money is a factor, but the structure was more or less on time(otherwise the construction crews would have to have paid TDO for coming in past the date agreed upon), and they budgeted it so that the build lasted for the length of time that they had. it was not slow and drawn out, it was as scheduled (more or less, within the same quarter) ::::EDIT::: larennig how to sepll...
 
danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
dstrawn9889 said:
yeah, but to build a park in a single year, they did not have such stringent inspections, did not have the building codes they do now, and most definitely did not have 15 million people walking through it at the time it was being built. they were building on an ISLAND in the middle of on stage, cut off from supplies and things they did not bring with them before the park opened, and tried to not make so much noise that people would be inconvenienced during their 100.00/day trip to DW. i am sure that money is a factor, but the structure was more or less on time(otherwise the construction crews would have to have paid TDO for coming in past the date agreed upon), and they budgeted it so that the build lasted for the length of time that they had. it was not slow and drawn out, it was as scheduled (more or less, within the same quarter) ::::EDIT::: larennig how to sepll...
Click to expand...

It was only an island for about half of it's construction time, and once the rest of Fantasyland opening it was still connected to the back stage access road for a few more months.
 
boufa

boufa

Well-Known Member
Let me jump in on the "Disney construction is soooo slow" argument with my expert sounding opinion from someone who isn't in construction or project management...

They don't have an umbilical to the outside. How would the workers get there? I don't want them walking down main street with hard hats and equipment. How about cement trucks, dump trucks, etc... The same situation with 7dmt, they didn't have access during the day.
 
danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
boufa said:
Let me jump in on the "Disney construction is soooo slow" argument with my expert sounding opinion from someone who isn't in construction or project management...

They don't have an umbilical to the outside. How would the workers get there? I don't want them walking down main street with hard hats and equipment. How about cement trucks, dump trucks, etc... The same situation with 7dmt, they didn't have access during the day.
Click to expand...

Construction of the mine ride started in September of 2011, and they had total access to the site until the walls for the rest of Fantasyland came down in September of 2012. Even then the work site remained connected to the back stage access road almost full time until late May 2013. After this they did do work during the day, there are many pictures showing workers on the mountain during park hours, so they must have been letting them walk through the park. Likely the used the back stage access near Little Mermaid so only had to cross a path to get from the work site to back stage.
 
WDWLover#1

WDWLover#1

Well-Known Member
danlb_2000 said:
Construction of the mine ride started in September of 2011, and they had total access to the site until the walls for the rest of Fantasyland came down in September of 2012. Even then the work site remained connected to the back stage access road almost full time until late May 2013. After this they did do work during the day, there are many pictures showing workers on the mountain during park hours, so they must have been letting them walk through the park. Likely the used the back stage access near Little Mermaid so only had to cross a path to get from the work site to back stage.
Click to expand...
What I think most people forget is that they had already put the foundations in place for the mega princess meet and greets. They had to tear that all out and replace it with a ride they never built before. Wit he argument concerning the length of construction of Tranformers in relation to the hub it was built in less than a year because
A) It's quite simple to construct - a concrete square with similar tech inside to what uni did b4 with spiderman
and
B) They built the ride twice before so they have experience with the building of it.
The hub is also building on existing pipes etc. Remember when they hit it and this happened:
Because of this they're probs more cautious now as well.
 
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ABQ

ABQ

Well-Known Member
danlb_2000 said:
Construction of the mine ride started in September of 2011, and they had total access to the site until the walls for the rest of Fantasyland came down in September of 2012. Even then the work site remained connected to the back stage access road almost full time until late May 2013. After this they did do work during the day, there are many pictures showing workers on the mountain during park hours, so they must have been letting them walk through the park. Likely the used the back stage access near Little Mermaid so only had to cross a path to get from the work site to back stage.
Click to expand...
Am I correct to assume the only safe entry point to the current hub work for heavy equipment (cement mixer truck, for example) is via the Main Street bypass route? I can see how that prevents certain open park hour work from taking place at this time. I know it was mentioned, possibly in this thread, how at least one of the new moat bridges was supposed to be designed for heavy loads.
 
dstrawn9889

dstrawn9889

Well-Known Member
i will allow that it took longer than some expected, but i am not privy to all that the work entailed... whether the old lagoon was poorly backfilled, or that the backfill was not properly compacted, or if there were other intrusions that had to be dealt with, or if the steel came in wrong, or the track did not turn in the radius expected, or the concrete was poured too thin, or the wrong PSI... the thing is we do not know.
 
M

mikeh

Well-Known Member
ABQ said:
Am I correct to assume the only safe entry point to the current hub work for heavy equipment (cement mixer truck, for example) is via the Main Street bypass route?
Click to expand...

That is correct, which leads to work being done after hours as they don't want to close the walkway through Tomorrowland Terrace.
 
dstrawn9889

dstrawn9889

Well-Known Member
for 7DMT they had closed the above shown entrance some time before this picture (google earth, right? <image date on this today was Jan 2014>) so they spent all of this year without that 'lifeline' or 'tether' to backstage.
 

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