Constructor - May/June 2017 - 23
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 thing - and we didn't want them to feel like they were coming through a construction site." The design took spectator sight lines into consideration at every turn and although the overall capacity was reduced - seating went from 145,000 to 101,500 - "the reaction from fans has been very, very positive," says Muldowney. It's different, says McFadden, from opening a school or a hospital. "Not to take anything away from those projects," he notes, "but when you can @Constr uctor Ma g 839169_Fastener.indd 1 stand in the corner as fans are coming in and just watch people, watch their expressions - the amount of 'wows' and the head shaking as fans take it all in? It's just remarkable." Front-loading the project with extensive planning, says Muldowney, was the gamble that proved it was anything but. "Dollars were one side of the risk. Time was another. To pull it all together so that we had enough time in preplanning to squeeze as much risk as possible out of the project was a big, big deal for 859263_National.indd 1 10/20/16 7:03 PM MA Y / J U N E us," he explains. "Many of the projects we do are significantly more straightforward - so we wouldn't do this for just any project - but with projects as complex as this, we'll follow the same procurement method when we do these in the future. "This has really changed not just Daytona, but it's changed the whole NASCAR industry and how we all look at NASCAR facilities going forward. Daytona Rising has been a huge game ◆ changer for our business." 2 0 1 7 | www.constructormagazine.com 24/03/1723 1:15 AM