COTA Austin - construction and infrastructure

[hairy_scotsman]

Tilke does the project management as usual. But you can't be successful if the owner tries to shoot himself in the foot all the time. The access road negotiations are going on for more than a year now. There is no reason for the council to make any more concessions. They do not have to meet a dead line. Epstein has. So why is he still screwing around with this? Another ego trip or simply loss of reality?

Stop the Epstein bashing without facts

A 2 way road can well be used for a bus mass rapid transit system to the nearest light rail head

The last I had heard they're planning on using buses, but as a park & ride system, not in conjunction with light rail. They could have amended that plan to include light rail, but the nearest stop is downtown, and some of the park & ride locations that have been talked about are much closer.

[FW17]

Tilke does the project management as usual. But you can't be successful if the owner tries to shoot himself in the foot all the time. The access road negotiations are going on for more than a year now. There is no reason for the council to make any more concessions. They do not have to meet a dead line. Epstein has. So why is he still screwing around with this? Another ego trip or simply loss of reality?

Stop the Epstein bashing without facts

A 2 way road can well be used for a bus mass rapid transit system to the nearest light rail head

The last I had heard they're planning on using buses, but as a park & ride system, not in conjunction with light rail. They could have amended that plan to include light rail, but the nearest stop is downtown, and some of the park & ride locations that have been talked about are much closer.

So it is not the end of the world. Donington was planning the race with only bus transit.

Wonder why people on the forum pour hot water on their feet at every instance.

[hairy_scotsman]

So it is not the end of the world. Donington was planning the race with only bus transit.

Wonder why people on the forum pour hot water on their feet at every instance.

It's not the end of the world, but again, a major reason for that planned expansion is to provide a dedicated emergency vehicle lane, and shuttle buses weren't to be using that section of road anyway. I believe the plan called for them to enter from McAngus Road.

[strad]

In Japan ya had to use mass transit to get to the track.,,also Canada I believe.
In Fact,,,I don't think there is an F1 track that easy ingress and egress

[xpensive]

Tilke does the project management as usual. But you can't be successful if the owner tries to shoot himself in the foot all the time. The access road negotiations are going on for more than a year now. There is no reason for the council to make any more concessions. They do not have to meet a dead line. Epstein has. So why is he still screwing around with this? Another ego trip or simply loss of reality?

I'm pleased to notice that we see eye-to-eye on this WB, the image of that access road was pitiful, you couldn't even organize a safe and decent coach-shuttle on the one.

[Richard]

That of course is all conjecture and hyperbole because we don't know what they are planning to do for access, and they do have 10 months to lay just 1 mile of tarmac.

They still have a bit of wriggle room on the construction, we can see that in the comparison with India. However, the political mess is rapidly destroying whatever room they have for manoeuvre. Consents & red tape are their biggest construction risk, assuming they have the funds.

[munudeges]

I think we'd all love to see a well done, well thought out and successful grandprix in the United States that would make Formula 1 more well known and popular there in a way that it never has been......but this is just not the way to do it.

It needs real will and backing from those at the top in Formula 1, and for someone who is supposed to be promoting the sport and should understand how important the US is as a market to many manufacturers and sponsors our Bernie is showing quite a lack of interest.

[WhiteBlue]

Tilke does the project management as usual. But you can't be successful if the owner tries to shoot himself in the foot all the time. The access road negotiations are going on for more than a year now. There is no reason for the council to make any more concessions. They do not have to meet a dead line. Epstein has. So why is he still screwing around with this? Another ego trip or simply loss of reality?

Stop the Epstein bashing without facts

The facts are all there. More than 12 months of negotiation have not yielded a result on a money issue despite all assurances that funds are fully secured for the project. The access road mile stone is over run according to public sources. Just read the local paper that was quoted by Hairy. Epstein is the lead investor and the responsible figure for those kind of issues. He also screwed up the negotiations of the F1 contract and the METF money and was personally responsible for two critical construction stoppages. So what facts are missing? It is all there to see for those who want to see. If I were in McCombs shoes as a major investor with this guy I would look very hard for a way to get rid of him.

[xpensive]

That of course is all conjecture and hyperbole because we don't know what they are planning to do for access, and they do have 10 months to lay just 1 mile of tarmac.
...

I'd say it's a little more than that, you pretty much need to build 2000 meters of a brand-new 4-lane highway, which at 3000 USD per meter will set you back 6 MUSD, which confirms the figures they are referring to.

Building just a single mile of highway is not xactly cost/time efficient, you should know that richard.

[FW17]

So what facts are missing?

The fact that you think Red is a major investor.

[Richard]

Curiously they did manage to get the local utility to relocate a transformer. Transformers normally usually have much longer lead times. That shows they do have people with foresight who can deliver on time.

So what's causing the issue in negotiating with the local authority?

Incidentally, is this local authority also required to grant licences to say the circuit is safe for public admission?

[WhiteBlue]

So what facts are missing?

The fact that you think Red is a major investor.

He is according to sources quoted in this thread including F1technical.

http://www.f1technical.net/news/15205

[xpensive]

That image of the Austin-track's "access road" is so unbelievably and amusingly hicky, with it's crooked direction and level, crooked telephone poles, pick-up trucks and scruffy surroundings, where MrE is supposed to travel with his entourage.

Let's take it once again just for the hell of it, just for laughs!

http://www.statesman.com/sports/formula ... 91924.html

[Richard]

In the same way that Swedish country roads are dirt tracks through endless forest with the occasional battered Volvo or Saab emerging from the 24 hour gloom.



Seriously, is your only complaint that there is a quirky old road where they propose to build a new one?

[Pup]

That image of the Austin-track's "access road" is so unbelievably and amusingly hicky, with it's crooked direction and level, crooked telephone poles, pick-up trucks and scruffy surroundings, where MrE is supposed to travel with his entourage.

I didn't realize you were such the snob. And I thought all good swedish kiddies grew up listening to these guys...

Let's take it once again just for the hell of it, just for laughs!

http://www.statesman.com/sports/formula ... 91924.html

What's truly funny about that photo is that it shows what a non-issue this really is. The pic was taken, according to HS, at the end of the already-4-laned section, and of course you can see the entrance to the course, and the "bridge", which must be no more than 20' long. Like Richard says, this can be easily done. Absolute worse case, throw down some gravel and call in a bailey bridge.

I smell a bit of opportunism here (from multiple sources). This little stretch of road was already planned to be widened, most of it has already been done, and the land to complete the job was purchased years ago. But the work was stopped when the county found out that the circuit was being built, supposedly because of "heavy traffic", but if you take a look on google maps at the sections they've completed, it seems obvious that the road is amply designed for anything the circuit would add. They gave the road a major off ramp from the highway, so it's not like they were building it for a little farm traffic. No, it seems obvious to me that the county is holding up the road to get the circuit to pay for the work for them. In fact, the article states that the county wants COTA to pay for more than half of the work - for a project that they'd already budgeted! Hell, I'd tell them to go stick it, too.

Actually, since the off ramp from the highway for that entrance (the secondary entrance, btw - I got suspicious the moment it got promoted to "one of the main entrances") is but a single lane wide, I'm not sure what the absolute need is to widen the road. Just keep one lane as one way traffic into the circuit and keep the other open for emergency traffic.