Cars Land reaches construction milestone

The Cars Land complex at Disneyland Resort, patterned after the fictional Route 66 town of Radiator Springs in the movie “Cars,” reached a milestone Friday when a final steel supporting beam was fastened to the Cadillac Range, according to the Orange County Register.

The Cadillac Range is a fictional mountain range patterned after the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. The Cadillac Range will be the tallest point of the Cars Land complex, reaching 125 feet tall.

It will take up about half of Cars Land and is the backdrop for the Radiator Springs Racers ride.

The 280,000-square-foott structure is the largest rockwork job at any U.S. Disney park — even bigger than the Matterhorn and Splash Mountain. Disney describes the rockwork as “one-of-a-kind” and complex because it has few 90-degree angles.

“Visitors will look at the steel and say, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen anything like this before,’ ” said Dennis Breen, a project executive of Clark Construction who is working on the project. “I’ve been in the business for 40 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

While construction is blocked from the park, the Cars Land steel structure and cranes can be seen from the nearby I-5 freeway and park visitors can see crews and trucks.

The story includes a graphic about the complex that shows what Radiator Springs will feature, including Flo’s V-8 Cafe, Sarge’s Surplus Hut, Fillmore’s Taste-In, Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree, Cozy Cone Motel, Radiator Springs Curio Shop, Luigi’s Flying Tires, Radiator Springs Courthouse, and Ramone’s House of Body Art.

Cars Land is scheduled to be finished in 2012.

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