Previous Page
Index
 Search
 Next PageC-Town Raceway - September 17 thru October 11, 2002 |
|
|
|
Concept & Design On Saturday June 15, 2002, David sat in the living room and roughed out a design for a public park raceway that could be used by tricycles, bicycles, BMX bicycles, pedal cars, scooters, skateboards, roller-skates, and rollerblades. A couple hours later the hand drawn draft was cleaned up with a CAD program and this drawing was completed. The concrete surface has a typical width of eight-feet. The dashed contour lines represent a one-foot elevation separation. There are four banked curves, one hill, and a set of moguls. The overall dimension is 90 x 110. During the next few days light poles and signs were added to this design. Then detailed construction drawings were prepared to include site grades, drainage and pavement specifications. (06.15.02) |
|
|
C-Town Raceway Work begins! The area had been rough-graded months earlier and the contractor had to move very little dirt for the flatwork. This photograph is looking south towards a half-court basketball court. There had been about four-weeks required for David to complete all the plans. It took another two-weeks to bid the work. Then there was an unexpected six-week delay on the part of the contractor. (09.17.02) |
|
|
C-Town Raceway Three days after starting the forms were really taking shape. Underground conduit and light poles had already been installed well in advance of the concrete work as seen in the photograph. Each fixture is positioned to illuminate the surface without shadows, including the banked curves. Three of the four lights will be activated by a push-button and will go off at 10pm. The fourth light is seen in the rear of this photograph nearest the street corner and will stay on all night and illuminate the "C-Town Raceway" sign. (09.20.02) |
|
|
C-Town Raceway David calculated the amount of dirt fill required to reach finish grade under the 5,000 square-feet of track surface. The fill was delivered to the site months before construction started and can be seen at the left in this photograph. The contractor erected the outside forms to the specifications of the drawings before moving the fill into place. (09.20.02) |
|
|
C-Town Raceway Five days into the form work the steel expansion joints, welded wire mesh and reinforcing bar were completely installed and ready for concrete. David specified this reinforcement and four-inches of concrete with a light broom finish. The steel expansion joint will be smooth so that the small hard wheels of roller skates, roller blades, and skateboards won't bump at the joints. (09.23.02) |
|
|
C-Town Raceway And then came the concrete trucks. About seventy yards of concrete was required to complete the track. The first four trucks brought the stiff slump required for the banked curves, hill and moguls. (09.24.02) |
|
|
C-Town Raceway From original concept drawing to finished plans there were no changes made to the track design. Curves, widths, banks, grades, lengths all stayed the same. Construction drawings introduced a slight overall slope to achieve drainage, but otherwise David stuck with the original plan 100%. There were moments when he wondered if his calculations and design were going to work as planned. These moguls and the very moment this picture was taken was one of those times. But confidence was not broken and no on-the-fly changes were made during construction. (09.24.02) |
|
|
C-Town Raceway A guard watched the concrete from completion at 7pm until about 11pm to discourage tampering. By morning, when this photograph was taken, the concrete was well on its way to curing. The continued appearance of grass shows just how close the rough-grading had been. (09.25.02) |
|
|
C-Town Raceway Even before the forms were removed neighborhood cyclists began "testing" the new track. This photograph taken by David ended up on the front page of the Colorado County Citizen newspaper. Brief concerns about the design of the moguls completely evaporated. (09.30.02) |
|
|
C-Town Raceway Even though the concrete work is done, the C-Town Raceway is only 50% complete. 220 cubic yards of dirt is on the way and will be compacted down to 170 cubic yards to build the small mountain that these concrete ribbons run through and around. When completed there will be no grade separation at the edges of the track anywhere. That's to say that there will not be any drop-offs. Part of the original design feature is that any user who leaves the track will have a smooth (not necessarily flat and level) transition to grass. It is intended that this will also allow the track to be easily mowed with the only obstacles being lamp posts and traffic signs. (10.04.02) |
|
|
C-Town Raceway On this day David found that there was an early-release at one of the elementary schools and that mothers had brought seven children with scooters, bicycles, bicycles with training wheels and a tricycle to the raceway. (10.04.02) |
|
|
C-Town Raceway As originally conceived, these moguls are jumps to 'big' kids and two small hills for the smaller kids. To achieve the multipurpose, multi-user goal David designed the track to have different levels of challenge, yet not create an area that would attract 'extreme' sports. It was a compromise that meant the track would intentionally fall short of the expectations of post-teen BMX and skateboarders. (10.04.02) |
|
|
C-Town Raceway Each week the raceway, named C-Town Raceway by Linda, has attracted more and more children. These boys on rollerblades and bicycles were on the track at the same time as the seven elementary school children and neither group interfered with the other. (10.04.02) |
|
|
C-Town Raceway Another week later and still more kids! This photograph was taken on Friday evening. The photograph shows only a portion of the track and yet eight of the fifteen users on the track at that moment can be seen. One on a scooter, two on rollerblades and five on bicycles! (10.11.02) |
|
|
C-Town Raceway The first of about nine signs that will be erected can be seen in this photograph. On the left is the "Finish Gate." The side you are looking at faces a 25-yard straightaway along the street side of the raceway. There will be a broad white line painted across the track at one end with the work "START" painted in black. Seventy-five feet ahead is another line with the word "FINISH." Over the finish line is the typical finish gate which will have "FINISH" in bright red letters overhead. Built into the finish gate designed by David are flag holders at the ends which will hold 3x5 checkered flags. The reverse side of the finish gate faces the street intersection and will be lettered, "C-TOWN RACEWAY," again in red letters. A lamp post is positioned to illuminate the raceway sign from dusk to dawn. (10.11.02) |
|
|
C-Town Raceway What a success! The C-Town Raceway has already proven to be the most popular addition to the city's parks. And it's not even finished yet. When complete the raceway will include down-sized highway signs including: curve, speed limit 25, hill, rough road, yield and stop. Beginning in the spring the raceway will be used for the Police Department's Bicycle Rodeo and the school's traffic safety programs. (10.11.02) |
|
|
|
|
November 02, 2006 | |
