Fresh sod has been placed around the new EPCOT ride-share loop and plaza as crews appear to near completion on the project.

New Sod Placed in EPOT Ride-Share Loop Plaza

The new sod is visible toward the bottom of the above photo, in front of the loops themselves. This is significant progress from when we last reported on the construction in late June; at that point, the entire worksite amounted to mounds of dirt. Pavement was placed around the loops later in the summer, and the new sod around the plaza indicates that work on the project is progressing as planned.

The light poles emerging from the strip of dirt in the middle of the left loop have also been added within the last few days; we saw the bases of each pole in the dirt on August 13, but the poles themselves are new additions.

A few still-present dirt strips need to be filled, but the new EPCOT ride-share loop largely appears to be nearing completion.

EPCOT Ride-Share Loop

Work first began on the EPCOT ride-share loop in February of this year, but the most visible progress hasn’t been made until relatively recently. It’s located near the HeiHei parking lot, part of the recently renamed Earth lots.

The new ride-share loop at EPCOT is one of the final, albeit less flashy, projects done in conjunction with a years-long park refresh. As part of the overhaul, EPCOT was divided into four neighborhoods — World Nature, World Celebration, World Discovery, and the long-present World Showcase. Several new attractions came to the park as part of the reimagining; Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure opened at the back of the France Pavilion in late 2021. Guardians of the Galaxy – Cosmic Rewind opened inside World Discovery in May 2022. Journey of Water Inspired by Moana, a walkthrough attraction based on the 2016 film, recently started Cast Member previews and is set to open later this year.

Several projects are still under construction as well. CommuniCore Hall and CommuniCore Plaza, named after the science-and-technology-based pavilion that was present at EPCOT Center on opening day, are in the works, with an EPCOT easter egg-filled mural for the former recently being revealed. While we don’t yet know exactly when the project will conclude, we do know that CommuniCore Hall and Plaza will not open before Disney starts celebrating their 100th anniversary at EPCOT on September 22.

Dreamers Point, a location near Spaceship Earth that will host the Walt the Dreamer statue that was introduced at D23 Expo in 2022, also remains under construction but, too, likely will not open in time for the start of Disney100 celebrations.

Zach Riddley, the Imagineer who oversaw the EPCOT reimagining, was recently promoted to Global Creative Strategy Executive for Walt Disney Imagineering.

How do you feel about the EPCOT refresh that has occurred over the past few years? Do you plan to utilize the new EPCOT ride-share loop when it ultimately opens? Let us know in the comments.

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