COTA Austin - construction and infrastructure

[xpensive]

Statesman.com: Work moving along...

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/ ... ula_austin

Interesting piece Hairymac, I browsed through the comments and thought about this one, any response there?

So there are 30,000 hotel rooms from Waco to San Marcos. I’m just wondering where these 120,000 are going to stay. Or more reasonably, how will they get from their hotel room in Dallas or SA to the track on Fri. Then back to D town or SA to the hotel for a nights sleep and change of clothes. Repeat 3 nights of the weekend? I honestly can’t wait to see what happens, my eyes see a cluster f++k coming. It will be fun to watch.

[mx_tifoso]

Can't the same be asked of locations like Magny-Cours? So if anything, Austin has more of a chance of meeting the demands for accommodations than a rural circuit between two small towns.

[Mystery Steve]

Interesting piece Hairymac, I browsed through the comments and thought about this one, any response there?

So there are 30,000 hotel rooms from Waco to San Marcos. I’m just wondering where these 120,000 are going to stay. Or more reasonably, how will they get from their hotel room in Dallas or SA to the track on Fri. Then back to D town or SA to the hotel for a nights sleep and change of clothes. Repeat 3 nights of the weekend? I honestly can’t wait to see what happens, my eyes see a cluster f++k coming. It will be fun to watch.

I have a feeling one or two people might bring a camper or tent to sleep in... And why would we assume that everyone is going to be attending every single practice session that weekend? There's a good chance a lot of people will only show on Sunday, and another large group who will only show on Saturday and Sunday.

[hairy_scotsman]

Statesman.com: Work moving along...

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/ ... ula_austin

Interesting piece Hairymac, I browsed through the comments and thought about this one, any response there?

So there are 30,000 hotel rooms from Waco to San Marcos. I’m just wondering where these 120,000 are going to stay. Or more reasonably, how will they get from their hotel room in Dallas or SA to the track on Fri. Then back to D town or SA to the hotel for a nights sleep and change of clothes. Repeat 3 nights of the weekend? I honestly can’t wait to see what happens, my eyes see a cluster f++k coming. It will be fun to watch.

Mac? Where did you conjure that from? I must say you are one odd bird.

My response would be "Don't believe everything you hear or read, and even less of it if it's in the comments section of a Statesman article".

There are 30,000 hotel rooms in Metro Austin alone, about 46,000 in San Antonio, and about 4000 in Waco. That's 80,000, not counting thousands more in Georgetown, Temple, Kyle, San Marcos, New Braunfels, and more. Also, that only takes into account towns right on the IH-35 corridor. There's also Bastrop and the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort just east of COTA about 20 miles. So forget Dallas and Houston...there are easily 100,000+ rooms within 100 miles of Austin to the north and 80 miles to the south. How many rooms do we need for 120,000 people?

San Antonio enjoys many nice highrise hotels downtown near the River Walk, and lots of new resort hotels out in the north and northwest portions of the city. I've actually driven from COTA to my in-laws' house just north of downtown in San Antonio. It takes about 70 minutes.

I've heard of quite a few people who have reservations for GP week on the north side of Austin in Georgetown, Cedar Park, Pflugerville, and Leander, etc. From those places the trip to COTA is about 50 minutes. Negligible difference in drive time between those places and San Antonio, and SA is a great place to stay...a tourist destination in it's own right. Tourism is SA's #1 industry.

[strad]

I have a feeling one or two people might bring a camper or tent

Yep,, And a ton will be in RVs and Motorhomes
Worked in San Antonio in the 70s...Now that's a place that has changed.

[bhall]

You also can't forget about the people who bring their lodging with them.

EDIT: Looks like it wasn't forgotten.

[hairy_scotsman]

I have a feeling one or two people might bring a camper or tent

Yep,, And a ton will be in RVs and Motorhomes
Worked in San Antonio in the 70s...Now that's a place that has changed.

...and many will just drive in for the day and then drive home.

Moved to Austin from Tennessee in 1977. Unbelievable change in Austin and SA over that span. People talk about how laid-back Austin is and I just laugh. I mean...it is, compared to most places...but most people have no idea how relaxed and laid-back it was in the 70s and 80s.

[Richard]

One of those links says "Crews start about 1 a.m. and have finished pouring 600 yards of cement by about 7:30". http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/ ... ula_austin

That rather contradicts earlier posts in the thread about the slothenly nature of obese American construction crews doesn't it?

Rather amusing mix of metric and imperial units too.

[FW17]

One of those links says "Crews start about 1 a.m. and have finished pouring 600 yards of cement by about 7:30". http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/ ... ula_austin

That rather contradicts earlier posts in the thread about the slothenly nature of obese American construction crews doesn't it?

Rather amusing mix of metric and imperial units too.

1) Concrete is measured in volume, wonder what 600 yard means

2) a 9000 seats is a stand not a grandstand

3) no pier work for the grandstand

[Richard]

1 - They mean cubic yards. I've heard it called metres in the UK. To be far this is written by some journalist with some arts degreee who wouldn't know a metre from a yard, or a cube from a line.

2 - That's why they are on track with the construction, they're starting off small! Also the old Silverstone was largely made up of temporary stands. It also avoids all those empty permanent stands we see in China. Its probably dictated by cash flow as it reduces the up front capital, they can extend the amount of permanent grandstand once the revenues start coming and liquidity improves.

3 - Sounds like the foundations are in. "Pipes" could mean piles, or if the articles really does mean pipes then foundations must be finished. You don't put the pop ups in before you trample over the site digging foundations!

[Pup]

It's common slang here to order concrete by the yard, as opposed to cubic yard. The mixture of metric and standard has to do with what they're talking about. The track was drawn and specced by Tilke, so the dims will be metric. The other buildings may or may not be specced in metric, but regardless, the material will have to be ordered in US measurements, so therefore, yards. Actually, I think most highway work is specced in metric, since it's gov't work, so that contractor might always talk metric.

[Richard]

The FIA spec for surface tolerance will be in metric.

[xpensive]

The FIA spec for surface tolerance will be in metric.

They better bring their own tools.

[Bob S.]

Something more recent http://www.autoweek.com/article/20111113/F1/111119950

So what? McCombs is still one of the biggest investors. Nobody denied that Epstein is the lead investor. And this is the main reason why the project is in trouble. The guy is acting like a moron.

I have to disagree here. Hellmund and Epstein have been on since the beginning. McCombs is brought on board. The thing goes south. Bernie jettisons Helmund and cuts a deal with Epstein and McCombs.

Everything is moving forward now. COTA updates their website, facebook or pushes items to the media a few times a week (we all see that b/c HS thankfully keeps us apprised); this did NOT occur when Hellmund was on board. They are MUCH more transparent now. It seems like a new team is running it. As best as i can tell, the only difference is Hellmund is gone.

As a reminder, Bernie rescinded his deal with Hellmund. COTA did not (and could not) force Hellmund out. Bernie discovered something and cut his losses with Hellmund. Time will tell on what that something was.

[hairy_scotsman]

1) Concrete is measured in volume, wonder what 600 yard means

Cubic yards.

3) no pier work for the grandstand

What are you saying here?