Concrete is flowing for Cars Ridge Run Rally, the off-road racing ride coming to Magic Kingdom’s Piston Peak National Park. From the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad queue, we watched crews pour foundation concrete as pumps cleared standing water from the site following days of rain earlier this week. New aerial photos taken a few days earlier show the same foundations from above. Here’s the latest.
Cars Ridge Run Rally Foundation Concrete Poured at Piston Peak National Park
IN THIS ARTICLE:
- Crews are forming and pouring foundation concrete for Cars Ridge Run Rally in Piston Peak National Park.
- Pumps and what appears to be a dewatering system are clearing standing water from the site following days of rain.
- New aerial photos from Bioreconstruct show where the new foundations sit inside the retaining walls.
Work on Piston Peak National Park has spent most of 2026 below ground level, with retaining walls, buried pipes and a tower crane drawing most of the attention. This week, the focus shifted to one of the two attractions coming to the Frontierland expansion. Fresh concrete for Cars Ridge Run Rally now lines parts of the former Rivers of America riverbed. It’s the clearest sign yet of the ride taking physical form.
Based on the Piston Peak National Park model Imagineering displayed at D23 Expo in August, this stretch of the construction site belongs to Cars Ridge Run Rally. During an Imagineering panel on the land’s design, Imagineers described a family thrill ride that climbs to a snowy summit and splashes around in a new creek that will run along the Frontierland boardwalk. Vehicles roll over camelback humps, then dodge active geysers before racing to the finish line.
Most of the current progress sits at the base of the tall retaining wall near Diamond Horseshoe. Crews have poured a flat slab there, topped by a raised ledge with low concrete walls rising off of it. Wooden forms frame the next sections, ready for more concrete. Behind it, the retaining wall delineates where the creek will be. Round holes from form ties dot its weathered, stained surface. The fresh foundation concrete sits lower and cleaner, still wrapped in formwork, so the new work is easy to pick out.
A long row of vertical rebar sticks out of the slope above the wall in front of Diamond Horseshoe. Those bars appear to be waiting for another pour that will tie into the wall below. Nearby, a survey crew worked with a GPS rod and tablet while a laser level stood on a tripod along the fence line. Precise layout work like this typically comes right before crews set new forms, so this corner of the site has more concrete ahead.
Crews Pour Concrete Around Standing Water
Closer to the tower crane, workers poured concrete from a bucket held aloft by a telehandler. One crew member guided the drop hose into an excavation along the water’s edge. Behind them, a timber-shored area holds two round structures that look like utility or drainage vaults. Pipes and conduit stubs poke out of the dirt on the level above, surrounded by orange safety fencing.
Much of the former riverbed area sits under shallow, muddy water. The Central Florida area had days of rain earlier this week as a cold front moved through. Crews have parked work vehicles and pumps in the standing water, with hoses snaking across the basin toward the edges of the site. Along the waterline, a row of arched hoses feeds into a long header pipe. It appears to be a dewatering system, deployed following the extensive rain.
While the rain may have slowed things down, it hasn’t stopped the pours. Rebar cages also stick out of the tops of several retaining wall sections. They appear to mark more spots where new concrete will connect to what’s already standing.
Aerial Photos Show New Foundations Inside the Retaining Walls
Our ground-level photos only cover part of the site. For a wider look, friend of the site Bioreconstruct shared aerial photos taken a few days before our visit. From above, the retaining wall reads as one continuous gray ribbon wrapping around the site. Crews poured that wall in sections earlier this year, and its clean top edge casts long shadows across the mud.
Inside one curved section of that wall, directly beneath the crane’s jib, a lighter patch of fresh concrete stands out against the dirt. A stepped section and a staircase run alongside it. Beyond that, wooden formwork boxes and short form walls sit on a lower level. Flat rebar mats lie staged nearby for upcoming pours. The square pad at the base of the crane is the crane’s own foundation, which crews poured back in July.
That crane started operating at the beginning of October, and it will help build the show buildings and theming for the land. In February, Disney filed paperwork that states crews will complete infrastructure work for Piston Peak National Park and Villains Land by 2028. Neither Piston Peak attraction has an opening date yet. Even so, foundation concrete for the land’s headliner is a big step forward.
Story So Far
- March 9: Crews made the first concrete pours for the Piston Peak National Park project along the southern edge of the site.
- March 19: Aerial photos showed vertical retaining wall pieces installed for the land’s planned stream.
- June 5: Crews began installing underground pipes across the site.
- July 28: Crews poured the concrete foundation for the tower crane.
- August 15: Disney announced the names Cars Ridge Run Rally and Miss Fritter’s Daredevil Spin Along at D23 Expo.
- October 1: We spotted the tower crane operating for the first time.
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!