A utilidor is a utility corridor built underground or aboveground to carry utility lines such as electricity, water and sewer. Communications utilities like fiber optics, cable television and telephone cables are also sometimes carried. They are most common in very cold climates where direct burial below the frost line is not feasible (such as in Alaska, where the frost line is more than eighteen feet below the surface and is frozen year round. They are also built in places where the water table is too high to bury water and sewer mains and where utility poles would be too unsightly or pose a danger (like in earthquake prone San Francisco). These tunnels range in size from just large enough to accommodate the utility being carried to very large tunnels that can also accommodate human and even vehicular traffic.
The largest and most famous utilidors are at Disney theme parks. They were first built for Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida. Smaller utilidor systems are built under the central section of Epcot's Future World, primarily beneath "Spaceship Earth" and "Innoventions," and at Pleasure Island.
The utilidors are a part of Disney's "backstage" (behind-the-scenes) area. They allow Disney employees ("cast members") to perform park support operations, such as trash removal, out of the sight of guests to avoid ruining the illusion that is being created.
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According to modern legend, Walt Disney was bothered by the sight of a cowboy walking through Disneyland's Tomorrowland enroute to his post in Frontierland.[1] He felt that such a sight was jarring, and detracted from the guest experience. When the Florida park was being planned, engineers designed utilidors to keep park operations out of guests' sight.
The utilidors are beneath the Magic Kingdom, but they are not a basement. Because Florida has such an elevated water table, most of these tunnels were actually built at ground level. That means the Magic Kingdom was built above that. All the guests of the park are one storey high. Parts of Fantasyland, including Cinderella's Castle, are at third-story-level (this is why the castle seems to loom so large as guests approach it via Main Street, USA). The ground's incline is so gradual that guests do not realize they are ascending to the second and third stories. The Magic Kingdom is built upon soil which was removed from what is now the Seven Seas Lagoon.
The utilidors are built on 9 acres (36,000 m2), and the floor plan is a circle with a path down the middle. The tunnel walls are color-coded to make it simple for users to determine their location. The utilidors can be accessed from a main tunnel entrance located behind Fantasyland, or through unmarked doors throughout the Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom cast members park about one mile (1.6 km) away and are transported via a Disney bus to the tunnel. Some shops, restaurants and attractions have direct access to the utilidors.
Cast members navigate the tunnels on foot or in battery-operated vehicles that resemble golf carts, which cast members call "Pargos". Gasoline-powered vehicles are not allowed in the utilidors, with the exception of armored cash pickup trucks, and, in extreme emergencies, ambulances.
The utilidors have been referred to as an "underground city", the functions of which include:
Utilidors are above-ground enclosed utility conduits that are used in larger communities in the northern polar region where permafrost does not allow the normal practice of burying water and sewer pipes underground. They can in particular be found in Inuvik, Northwest Territories and Iqaluit, Nunavut. Not all older homes are connected, and rely on trucks to deliver water and remove sewage. Most homes in rural Alaska (off the road system) are not equipped with plumbing and require fresh water and waste to be transported by personal vehicle such as snowmobile or four-wheeler ATV. Villages with utilidors are considered more advanced.
Utilidors may also be used to carry fuel lines, such as natural gas. They are not normally used to carry wiring for electric, telephone and television service, which are usually suspended from poles.
Portions of the Chicago Tunnel Company's abandoned network of tunnels are leased to utility companies for use as common utility ducts for electrical, communication and HVAC lines. The tunnels lie approximately forty feet below the street surface and run under all streets in the central business district, except where they were displaced by rapid transit tunnels.