While visiting Magic Kingdom today, we decided to stop in and check out the ongoing work to drain and demolish the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island. Walt Disney World began draining the Rivers of America earlier this month and faced a few setbacks along the way due to afternoon storms refilling the river basin. Now, crews are working on getting the last bit of water out of the basin as they prepare for the next phase of work. Speaking of the next phase of work, Walt Disney World is beginning the process of making sure it’s difficult to see.
Rivers of America Nearly Dry, Construction Wall Installation Work Begins
As BlogMickey.com previously reported, Walt Disney World needed to clear the majority of the mud from the river basin before they could begin the installation of construction walls. With much of the mud along the boardwalk area cleared, and crews working on draining the last bit of the remaining standing water, Disney has begun the process of installing scaffolding to block views of the next phase of work: demolition.
We’ll start on the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure side of the boardwalk. As you can see in the photos below, new scaffolding has been installed along the dry basin, indicating that work is beginning to construct a wall to block views of the former Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island.
I was taking photos of the drained Rivers of America when I heard a stomach growl. I was pretty sure it wasn’t mine, and when I looked around, I saw Shaker from the Country Bear Musical Jamboree. He was a bit hungry now that his source of fish has dried up.
Here’s a closer look at the first bit of track cut. It seems like the track was cut as more of an access point than anything else, but we imagine all of the track will be removed as part of the demolition phase.
Finally, we saw crews continuing to work on draining stubborn parts of the river basin.
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There are some commentators in the forums — backed up by cross section drawings in the Rivers of America Embankment Plan filed with the South Florida Water Management District — that suggest the plan is for Disney to leave the cement river bed and fill about five feet of dirt on top. If that is the plan, it’s curious why every last bit of water must be pumped out. Couldn’t they just start bringing in dirt and compacting it? And would their plan be to bury the riverboat tracks too, rather than, say, recycling that metal? Thanks for covering this intriguing process every step of the way.
I think that the introduction of scaffolding certainly suggests that they anticipate the cement staying for a bit. I don’t think that there is concrete under Tom Sawyer Island, so perhaps they’ll end up taking a hybrid approach where they leave the riverbed in place around this boardwalk area and turn everything else to dirt. It’ll actually be quite interesting to see what they end up doing, and I’m very surprised that they’re going through all of this trouble for some foot traffic capacity on the boardwalk. I’d imagine that it would’ve been much, much easier to just remove the boardwalk entirely (even if they ended up rebuilding it) than working around it like they appear to be willing to do.
I hate to see rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island Go. I visited island and explored the cave to get out of the heat on a hot summer day. I liked the riverboat ride too. At least the area will live on in my memory.
Once again the Disney executives rather than keep something nostalgic and build something new on the many acres they still have available would rather continue to destroy Walt’s legacy and the history of the parks. As a Floridian who has gone to the parks as a young child, taken my children and my older grandchildren in so sad to see my youngest grandchild will miss all of the splendor we all knew and loved.
I understand nostalgia, but the last few times I rode the riverboat it was nowhere near full, and Tom Sawyer Island seemed to be almost empty even when the park was near capacity. It makes sense to eliminate the underutilized areas and replace them with attractions that will be interesting and actually used by the guests. Hopefully it will reduce the wait times at other attractions too.