Walt Disney World continues to make progress on Piston Peak and Villains Land in Magic Kingdom, with the landscape starting to take shape following the completion of a retaining wall and installation of a new tower crane that’ll eventually take the project vertical. New aerial photos reveal the progress, just how vast the Giant Dirt Pit is, and early contours of Cars land. Here’s the latest, plus our commentary about what’s next.
As a quick recap, the Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island, and Liberty Square Riverboat all closed back on July 7th of last year. Walls went up along a portion of the waterfront in Liberty Square and Frontierland, and crews started by draining the former Rivers of America. All the while, the waterfront boardwalk has remained open.
Demolition of Tom Sawyer Island took from roughly October through December. With the land fully cleared as of early 2026, the last 6 months have mostly been a matter of site prep and grading. There was also work done to prepare for the reopening of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which included establishing a boundary between that attraction and the construction site, and installation of new walls.
Otherwise, it’s been a lot of less ‘sexy’ stuff to prepare for vertical construction. Crews have continued to grade dirt and reshape the landscape, burying pipes and installing utilities as they prepare for foundations. There’s been a lot of boring infrastructure work, which is typical of projects at this stage.
As we’ve noted elsewhere this also tends to be the point at which projects feel like they’re being dragged out, but construction starts to go vertical and feels like it’s speeding up. There are frequently complaints about the slow pace of the project or even purposeful delays.
We remember hearing that first about New Fantasyland, and pretty much every project since. That’s inevitably followed by fans believing projects have been sped up or received additional resources once they go vertical. (Most recently, this exact dynamic has played out with Tropical Americas at Animal Kingdom.)
In this particular case, there’s even more groundwork than normal before the show buildings start going vertical. Much of the last year has been transforming what was once the Rivers of America into something suitable for attractions; not quite the same as building on an expansion pad, or even a Cast Member parking lot!
Up until recently, the biggest visible progress has been a new vertical retaining wall that’ll separate the new Piston Peak National Park landscape from the existing Frontierland. While that’s primarily all that’s been visible from the air since this spring, the construction site has been bustling with activity on a daily basis. It’s fun to watch the on-the-ground activity from the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad queue.
Then in mid-September 2026, a new tower crane appeared on-site, towering over the Piston Peak project site and most of the rest of Magic Kingdom. It’s visible from within the park and beyond, and is larger than the crane that was used for the retracking of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It’s the same type of tower crane that was used for the Encanto show building in Tropical Americas, which came down last month.
Against that backdrop, let’s turn to new late September 2026 aerial construction photos of the Piston Peak National Park and Villains Land construction sites, courtesy of friend-of-the-site bioreconstruct, the go-to source for aerial theme park photography.
As noted above, the most visible feature from the aerials is the retaining wall that runs parallel to the Frontierland and Liberty Square promenade, extending up across from the entrance of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
This entire area where the former Rivers of America was located is below-grade, hence the retaining wall in the first place. This will form the boundaries for the basin that becomes the stream. Basically, this should be what delineates the Creek of Piston Peak water feature and the snow-covered mountain concealing a show building on the Liberty Square side, or the actual Piston Peak.
The wall now forms one continuous barrier to separate Piston Peak from Frontierland and Liberty Square, and appears to be complete. Grading and infill work remains ongoing, as does installation of infrastructure and utilities. Following that, forming foundations is next up. That’ll happen before the project goes vertical in the meaningful sense of the word.
As we’ve been saying for a while, Piston Peak going vertical before the end of 2026 will be a win. And once that happens, it’ll move quickly. There’s a lot of work to be done before that, though. For reference, Tropical Americas took about 10 months to commence vertical construction, and that site didn’t need nearly as much grading.
Honestly, I’d be surprised and impressed if we see steel rising above the construction walls by Christmas 2026. I’d love to be wrong and have this work kick into a higher gear, but these projects are always slow-going…until they’re not.
With the tower crane now installed, it sure seems like we’re nearing the stage where Piston Peak is going to start accelerating! On the other hand, we don’t expect any material movement on Villains Land for a bit longer. We remain of the belief that Villains Land opening in 2030 is the best case scenario, and 2031 wouldn’t surprise us in the least.
Aerial photos don’t do justice to the Giant Magic Kingdom Dirt Pit in a few ways. They definitely make it look large, there’s no doubt about that, especially when zooming out and looking at the park as a whole. In this context, it’s easy to see how the combined Piston Peak and Villains Land project is the largest expansion in Magic Kingdom history–and probably by a wide margin.
I’m not sure the aerials convey just how vast and expansive this project site is, though. That’s much more evident when you’re on an elevated porch in Frontierland and look out in a sea of nothingness that extends beyond the park. Same goes for waiting in line at Big Thunder, and seeing nothing but dirt and construction equipment between you and Haunted Mansion.
They also undersell just how much work is actually happening; being so high above Magic Kingdom makes it look mostly like a scattering of trucks and equipment dotted among the dirt. There’s really a lot more happening that’s evident up close.
Finally, they don’t really give any context to what’s coming. Since it’s still mostly dirt and a retaining wall at this point, it’s hard to envision just what’s coming. For that, contrast the aerial construction photo and Piston Peak model above, which are very roughly the same angle ‘above’ Liberty Square.
Speaking of which, D23 debuted a detailed 225-square-foot scale model of the entire Piston Peak National Park project. As we wrote in that post, that model is going to change minds about this Cars miniland, as it looks absolutely fantastic. If you haven’t seen photos or video of that model yet, we’d highly recommend checking it out.
Other changes are occurring around Frontierland to accommodate construction. Over the last several months, Big Al’s, Westward Ho and Churro Wagon Cart have all closed. We assume the area they occupied will be used as parade bypass during peak season, although we’ve yet to witness that ourselves.
A more recent development is that the Frontierland “shortcut” on the other side of said kiosks has completely closed as of September. The writing had been on the wall for a while, as much of the once-waterfront boardwalk had been closed since July. For the last several weeks, guests could only access a small section around the former Westward Ho site. Now construction walls completely surround the boardwalk.
If you’re wondering why the Frontierland shortcut is closing, it’s due to construction creeping closer to guest areas. The giant tower crane looms over Frontierland, and is probably a bit too close to guest areas for the comfort of Disney Legal. There’s also the big unknown of whether Walt Disney World is going to replace and rebuild the waterfront boardwalk as part of the project, or just refurbish it.
It wouldn’t be the least bit surprising for Disney to tear out this waterway out of necessity during construction, and rebuild a new walkway in its place, or even slightly closer to the Frontierland thoroughfare to free up a bit more space for the stream. The model isn’t completely conclusive one way or the other; although the boardwalk looks similar up towards Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, it’s definitely different elsewhere.
Yet another update you might’ve missed is that the “mystery” structure for which land clearing is happening behind Haunted Mansion is not for an extended queue or the Haunted Mansion Parlor. It’s for (drumroll): restrooms!
This was an under-the-radar update that came out of D23, so we wanted to circle back and draw your attention to it. I’d still love to see the Haunted Mansion Parlor (or the once rumored table service restaurant) added somewhere in Liberty Square or periphery of Piston Peak. There’s also plenty of unused space (future expansion pads?) in the Villains Land plans.
Walt Disney World building an expansion on par with Piston Peak and Villains Land without any bars seems off-brand. The rave reviews for Haunted Mansion Parlor plus the smash success of Beak & Barrel would seem to suggest that, sooner or later, something like this is coming to Magic Kingdom somewhere. Just not behind the queue, as that’s where restrooms are going. It just seems too obvious given Disney’s penchant for booze, bars, and new revenue streams.
Finally, here’s an aerial video via bioreconstruct of the progress on the Cars and Villains Land project:
Aerial video of construction in Magic Kingdom for Piston Peak National Park and Villains Land.
A tower crane was recently added to build Cars Ridge Run Rally. Some of the attraction will be underground.
Many excavations in Villains Land for infrastructure. pic.twitter.com/yMSRBnqi8Z— bioreconstruct (@bioreconstruct) September 20, 2026
Ultimately, I’m really looking forward to seeing Piston Peak rise above Magic Kingdom once work finally does start to go vertical. It’ll definitely be more impactful from a guest perspective than any of the other Walt Disney World projects, but at least this Giant Dirt Pit is on the periphery of the park, as opposed to the dead center like the EPCOT incarnation.
As I’ve learned more about this project and the Imagineers bringing it to life, I’ve gone from quite critical to skeptical but hoping for the best. Now, I’m somewhere between cautiously optimistic and flat-out optimistic. I cannot overstate how great the model looked, and really hope Imagineering finds a home for it at Walt Disney World. It’s probably too massive for Walt Disney Presents, but they should create a showroom for it somewhere. Plenty of abandoned areas around the parks!
Piston Peak is going to add an incredibly detailed and lush landscape to Frontierland, and will add depth and dimensionality to the environment that wasn’t there before. Obviously, it’ll be very different from what was there before, but it should be a massive asset to this half of Magic Kingdom.
My other hope is that Walt Disney World continues to allocate as many resources as possible towards the Beyond Big Thunder expansion. Given that and the practical reality that Magic Kingdom currently has a Giant Dirt Pit on the west half of a park that puts the OG EPCOT Dirt Pit to shame, we should all want the best possible outcome.
Minimize the guest impact and have Piston Peak open ASAP. As far away as it seems today, having Piston Peak National Park open by or before Summer 2029 would be a win, especially since that would mean three major brand-new E-Ticket rides in 2028-2029 (Encanto, Monsters Door Coaster, Cars Ridge Run Rally), along with a few secondary attractions, and a high-profile reimagining via Indiana Jones Adventure. It’s gearing up to be an exciting time for Walt Disney World fans!
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Your Thoughts
Thoughts on the tower crane on-site in Piston Peak? When do you expect to see vertical construction on the Cars land? Excited or disappointed that Piston Peak National Park and Villains Lands are replacing Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
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