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Front-loading the project with extensive planning, says Muldowney, was the gamble that proved it was anything but. quantity at Daytona with say, a current NFL stadium, it's about 50 percent more capacity in all of those aspects for at least 25 percent of the overall cost." It proves, he says, that projects such as these can be done very efficiently with the right approach. "If egos don't get involved," he adds. "You cannot get carried away with what I call 'frou frou.'" They eliminated much of the frou frou by working closely, and early, with designers. "We focused on value enhancements and cost savings." McFadden says much of the savings fell under the categories of aesthetic. "It's the difference between a million-dollar home and a three-quartermillion-dollar home," he surmises. "Do you need a glass backsplash or is tile okay? Do you need terrazzo floors or will polished concrete work? A lot was just putting it in perspective. We'd ask, 'Is this revenue generating? Is it 22 constructor | M AY/ JU N E 2017 equired by code? Is it going to change that fan experience?' We stayed true to those three things in almost every conversation we had." FANS FARED There were five major races during the construction phase, and the Barton Malow team was tasked with maintaining a 100,000-seat capacity for each of them. This wasn't just a matter of numbers, either. "It was identifying the seat manifest eight to 10 months in advance because once a specific seat is sold, it has to be there," McFadden explains. "And then ensuring safe access for the person in that seat, and all the amenities, the restaurants, the concessions ...." This had to be done for each separate event, and although the track had a seating manifest, it's not designed to be useful for a general contractor. "The manifest is divided by seat sections - Earnhardt, Petty, and so forth," says McFadden. "But in the construction world, we need to look at it by column lines. These are our grids. I was actually one of the poor souls that physically went out and counted seats to ensure we knew how many were in each row - we made our own manifest." Lots of counting, lots of planning - then overlaying the information into the construction schedule. Using 3D imagery, then tying the model to the overall schedule, the Barton Malow team was able to show ISC exactly what the seating would look like for each event from the Rolex Race to the Daytona 500 to the Coke Zero 400. "It was all about making sure that the fans felt they were paramount throughout the course of construction," says McFadden. "We had over a quarter of a million visitors come through our construction site while we were building