Thanks to News 6, a report outlining an inspection completed by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) on the Walt Disney World Monorail has been made public.
According to the newly released report, the FDOT conducted three inspections on the Walt Disney World Monorail system last year. These inspections started in late summer 2023, after the Reedy Creek Improvement District was dissolved and replaced with the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD).
Ahead of the inspections, there were two meetings.
The first meeting took place near the monorail maintenance shop behind the Magid Kingdom where the FDOT District 5 Secretary and four engineers met with Disney personnel and management to go over the site.
Another meeting was held in October at the FDOT district office, where the parties went over engineering reports and records about the monorail system from its inception in the late 1960s to the early 1970s.
Disney trained the FDOT inspectors on the equipment needed to complete the inspection before they began.
The First Monorail Inspection – Verticle Columns
FDOT’s Structure Maintenance Office sent people out to inspect the verticle concrete columns, where they took measurements of the cracks and inspected the electrical conduits. Click Orlando mentioned that the report indicated “no issues” with those columns.
The Second Inspection – Monorail Footers
A second inspection was completed in November, during which FDOT engineers inspected the monorail footers, including the ones underwater in the resort lakes. Divers were utilized to complete the inspection.
The Third Inspection – Monorail Horizontal Beams
This phase was conducted in early December 2023. FDOT engineers examined the horizontal beams in which the monorail travels.
The Final Report
I would like to tell you that everything was great, but we simply don’t know because the final report contained a lot of redacted information when it was released. According to News 6,
“It is unclear whether FDOT engineers found anything of significance during their visits to Disney. Due to a Florida law that deems information related to the physical security of structures confidential, FDOT redacted large portions of the final monorail inspection report provided to News 6.”
I’m assuming that it must have mostly passed because we have not had the Walt Disney World Monorail close for prolonged refurbishment. However they are going to do a separate “risk-based” inspection on the Monorail sometime in the future.
The next scheduled inspection is set for 2026.
What do you think? Comment and let us know!
Source: Click Orlando News 6
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