Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck may be walking the streets of Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., but there i nothing make-believe about the vast chilled water and sewer distribution system buried beneath the ground. The area's high water table and stringent demands for performance resulted i the use of new and unusual corrosion- resistant pipe materials. Designing and installing the underground pipe systems proved a demanding and challenging chore.
The "Vacation Kingdom", which made up Phase I of the overall Wait Disney World development, remains the nation's largest non-governmental construction project. Phase I included a new Magic Kingdom theme park similar to Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., plus two theme resort hotels, lakes and lagoons, two 18-hole championship golf courses and other recreation facilities covering more than 2,500 acres of the total 27,000-acre Disney property. A coordinated transportation work- monorail trains, natural gas-fired ferries, steamboats, water taxis, sailboats and land vehicles-links all the outdoor recreation, entertainment and hotel facilities.
The theme park opened as scheduled in October, 1971, with two of the luxury hotels -the Contemporary Resort and Polynesian Village theme resorts; a Golf Resort hotel will open in November.
COOLING SYSTEM. The park has been an unqualified success, drawing more than 22 million quests since opening-with the piping system equal to the task. To adequately cool guests on any given day, one 2,500-ton centrifugal unit and four 1,600-ton absorption chillers were installed in the central energy plant located a half-mile from the theme park. Two additional 1,250-ton centrifugal units were installed since opening day, and plans are underway to add 6,000 tons more capacity by installing additional electrical chillers. When finished, the plant's total capacity will be 17,400 tons.
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