A newly filed permit from Walt Disney World suggests that the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad refurbishment has been extended. The new permit, filed yesterday, has an expiration date of April 15, 2026. This is more than a month later in the year than the furthest expiration date that we’ve seen while tracking permits. Here’s the latest.
Big Thunder Refurbishment Permit Stretches Into April 2026
Previously, we tracked a January 2025 permit that listed an expiration date of March 13, 2026. While expiration dates on permits don’t always align with reopening dates for attractions and experiences, they do give us insight into how long the work could take. The January 2025 permit listed Coastal Steel has the contractor, and “general construction” as the scope of the work. This new permit lists a different contractor.
Taking a look at the most recent permit, we see that DPR Construction is the listed contractor, and the scope of the work is “general construction”. It’s not uncommon to find a useless description with these types of permits given the leeway that Disney has been given over the years. What is more interesting is the expiration date of April 15, 2026.
What stands out to us about the expiration date is that it was manually entered. All permits have a standard 1-year expiration date, which means that this permit would’ve expired on April 17, 2026 anyway. The fact that an expiration date was manually entered seems to mean that the expiration date has some sort of significance, perhaps an internal end date for the project.
Of course, work could be completed earlier than the April 15th date, and I’m sure that Disney wants to get Big Thunder Mountain Railroad open as soon as possible with other Frontierland work on the horizon. Officially, Walt Disney World has only said that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will open sometime in 2026.
In case you missed it, the Rivers of America will be drained and Tom Sawyer Island will be demolished to make way for two new Cars-themed attractions. Walt Disney World has not announced a closing date for Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America yet, but we can’t imagine that they remain open into 2026.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!