Originally Posted By brotherdave According to the latest from Jim Hill, the bridge leading from the hub to Liberty Square is in desperate need of repairs and/or replacement. Since this is a major route for the park's parades, closing this bridge may be a problem. Supposedly, they now are tooling with re-routing the parades to the Toontown Fair gate near the Mad Tea Party. Personally, I find this news rather disturbing that this bridge is in such bad shape. Have any of the other bridges in the MK undergone rehab or replacement over the years? Given the amount of foot traffic that these bridges undergo each day, guest safety should be given the utmost consideration! If the parades need to be cancelled, then so be it! A few disgruntled guests is better than a collapsing bridge!
Originally Posted By FerretAfros There was discussion here a few weeks ago about the bridge having trouble with parade floats. I didn't fully understand the problem with it, but the bridge is supposedly sloping (by design), and that makes it really tough to get the parade floats across. It's narrow, so they don't have much wiggle room if they mess up, and they have to basically floor it to get over the bridge, but then ease up to get to the other side (that's where I'm confused). I don't think it's really a structural problem for guests, but when there are large moving floats on top of it, it is having (and creating) a lot more trouble.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORWEN: Does this mean there've been some Mothman sightings around the bridge lately? ORDDU: My sister is referring to the various American ledgends about a frightful winged creature with glowing red eyes who many claim to have seen just before a major bridge collapse or some other National tragedy. There are many articles written about this topic. To actually see this Mothman is supposed to be taken as a warning that something terrible is about to happen and Richard Geere even starred in a motion picture about this strange phenomenon.
Originally Posted By bean This bridge needs to be dismantled and then rebuilt from scratch it causes way tomany problems
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 <<Epcot gets along just fine without any parades>> Epcot was nicer with Tapestry of Nations, I never saw the Dreams parade.
Originally Posted By cherna-bog-vmk I'm a cast member, I work over at Liberty Square (Haunted Mansion shopkeeper) and I think they should get that bridge fixed, I have noticed it "jiggle" a little.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORWEN: Well, then, there would HAVE to have been some Moth Man sightings near that scary bridge by now! Come to think about it, Chernabog looks an awful lot like Moth Man, himself!! So you see, there HAVE been sightings to warn us all about the dangers of crossing that bridge!!
Originally Posted By mickeyboy43 Sounds very dangerous. Lets definitely hope the 3rd shift can fix this.
Originally Posted By brotherdave I think the problem is beyond the 'third' shift. It sounds as if the parades will need to be rerouted or postponed, and a full bridge demolition and rebuilding project will need to begin soon. By the way, ORWEN, Chernobog's been crossing that bridge since the early 1990s. Do you think he's been trying to warn us that long!?!
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORWEN: Oh, yes, I do!! Chernabog can see VERY far into the future!! He's been warning us all for a long, long time! Now it's up to Disney management to take him seriously. We sure wouldn't want another repeat of the silver bridge disaster from Point Plesant, West Virginia!!
Originally Posted By FerretAfros So, can anybody say what exactly the problem with the bridge is? Apparently it sways or bends when people go over it, but bridges are designed to do that under pressure. It's just like how tall skyscrapers are designed to sway in the wind or an earthquake. I'm not sure that this is really a problem, unless somebody with actual knowledge of the problem can fill us in. So far, all I've heard it that it "looks" like it's dangerous, but if that were the case, I'm sure Disney could see it too and close it down with the constant threat of lawyers all the time.
Originally Posted By figment1986 The bridge is a little old and needs a replacement / upgrade in the near future as far as i know.. Right now it has scaffolding underneath it holding it up as you can see in this photo. <a href="http://figment1986.smugmug.com/gallery/4279184_X5voa/1/250696007_acpnr" target="_blank">http://figment1986.smugmug.com /gallery/4279184_X5voa/1/250696007_acpnr</a>
Originally Posted By mickeyboy43 I think demolition is probably necesary, but it needs to happen after the spring break masses/easter crowd leaves. Let it endure that long, and see from there.
Originally Posted By magnet ...or, as with the South Street bridge in Philadelphia, you could just say that there is no problem. Never mind those holes that a pedestrian could fall through into the Schuykill river! They don't exist! The bridge is fine.
Originally Posted By bigbrian-nc dot com Iy's not really so much in danger of collapsing as it is just a bit of bad show to have all those metal poles underneath it that don't fit the colonial theme, being an all wood bridge in Florida Humidity that carries HEAVY parade floats the prudent thing to do probably would be to put in a Steel bridge dressed with a wooden facade to make it look colonial period, but as noted every day while it is closed they are without a parade in the Magic Kingdom perhaps they can stage most of the new materials for the bridge in such a way to allow an expedited construction schedule or even design it in such a way that the new footings could be poured while the old bridge is still in place still I would imagine that it would have to be out of service fro some period of time, but hopefully some of the smart folks over there can figure out ways to minnimise that period of time (or re-route the parade, or a simplified parade of some type if possible)
Originally Posted By bigbrian-nc dot com Heres a picture from back in october before they added the "drapes" over the extra steel supports under the bridge: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigbrian-nc/2290472501/" target="_blank">http://www.flickr.com/photos/b igbrian-nc/2290472501/</a>
Originally Posted By aracuanbird Seriously, if the parade can be rerouted into Fantasyland, this should be seriously considered. It would be better show and I think there is more flexibility to improve traffic patterns in that area of the park than there are in Frontierland...particularly when you consider that all that 20K footprint is vacant (okay, minus the Pooh playground). If Mad Tea Party were relocated to 20k's old home and more traffic space were opened up, taking pressure off that narrow valve through Fantasyland, I bet the parade could be permanently routed into the divide between FL and TL. It would be cool. AB When in Cyberspace visit: <a href="http://www.plausible-impossible.com" target="_blank">http://www.plausible-impossibl e.com</a>
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: If the bridge leading toward the Mad Tea Party, from the Hub to Fantasyland, was wider, your idea just might work, aracuanbird, duckling. As it is, that particular bridge just isn't wide enough to have guests standing there while a parade goes by. They almost HAVE to continue with the same parade route they've always had, in my humble opinion.
