PHOTOS - Major utility work underway in Epcot's Future World

By WDWMAGIC Staff · Tuesday June 24, 2014 10:44am EDT · "Future World"
PHOTOS - Major utility work underway in Epcot's Future World
The area between Club Cool and the Rose Garden is currently a construction site

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Utility work in Epcot Future World

Utility work in Epcot Future WorldUtility work in Epcot Future WorldUtility work in Epcot Future WorldUtility work in Epcot Future WorldUtility work in Epcot Future World

Some fairly major utility work is currently underway in Epcot's Future World.

It is not clear what the exact problem is, but work began rapidly at the conclusion of the Flower and Garden Festival. Speculation on the cause includes a broken water main and a resulting sink hole.

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Epcot utility work
Photo: WDWMAGICEpcot utility work

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PHOTOS - Major utility work underway in Epcot's Future World
↩ replying to wdwmagic
that's still a pretty big construction job D:
↩ replying to TheVisionarySoul
Read in Marty Sklar's book that the lake in Epcot--the one in front of the World Showcase...is really one BIG sinkhole. When building EPCOT they discovered it. They couldn't do anything about it...so they filled it with water and made it a lake. Not shocking there's issues in the area...guess they're not worried about the entire place caving in!
Maybe they're trying to bury that hideous "kaleidoscope" paint job like a dog does a bone.
↩ replying to BhamDisney
Sounds like a load of Blarney to me. From my understanding, those large sinkholes result from decay of limestone due to acid rain. They'd never trust the area to hold out for years to come if it had a sinkhole to start with.
↩ replying to note2001
Not claiming any truth to the statements and I'm not a geologist, but here are statements Sklar made during the 30th anniversary Q&A:

“One of the reasons there’s so much space between Future World and the World Showcase lagoon is that we discovered a gigantic sink hole near where the Odyssey Restaurant is,” Marty said. “We couldn’t build anything on top of it.”

He related how workers tried in vain to shore up the land by driving massive piles into the earth, “but the piles just kept getting sucked into the ground.” They covered the sink hole by placing giant steel plates on top of it.
you know, it looks like they are building up a foundation pad, and the plastic is to hold the berm prior to final grading and planting...
↩ replying to note2001
Sinkholes into lakes is a very common thing in Florida. Trying to seal a sinkhole is a pretty normal process. Some stay stable after they initially open. Others will fluctuate. Lake Jackson, near Tallahassee, is a large lake with a sinkhole in it. Every so often, the water in the lake disappears into the sinkhole. It will usually fill back up over a year or two. It's been doing that for centuries as it was known by the local tribes for doing the same thing before the Europeans came to Florida. But, the hole, itself, hasn't ever grown or become unstable.
↩ replying to Rasvar
Now you have me imagining World showcase lagoon turning into a hole of muck for a year or two before filling back in ... o_O
↩ replying to note2001
I figure with as much firework debris is in there that it has probably created a cement like seal in there by now.
↩ replying to ABQ
That's pretty much what his book said--just reporting what I read. There's a big sinkhole in EPCOT.
↩ replying to ABQ
So, looking through old photos of design and construction of EPCOT on the web, and I can see they had a few different variations on how the lagoon was to extend/or not down into Future world. Seems to me what they ended up with is that bit of awkward pathways over the water near the Odyssey as you quoted. This image seems to show they're either working on the monorail line, or some ground work over in that area:

http://holidaytripper.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Epcot-under-construction-881-426a.jpg
↩ replying to BoarderPhreak
see it in person, it looks better. At the very least it looks more fresh and lively than the boring, bland pinkish color.
↩ replying to note2001
Coincidentally, it looks like a pile driver at work over there, though it could be for a number of construction elements.
↩ replying to Tom Morrow
I hope you're right and will report back next week. However, chances are good that the FL sunshine will burn this geek's eyes out so bad I won't be able to make out that there's any color there at all.