Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Racing enthusiast and Utah businessman Larry H. Miller had a vision of creating a world class racing facility in his "backyard." In 2004, he secured a 511-acre site located 30 miles west of Salt Lake City in rural Tooele County. It was flat ground, covered with little more than sagebrush, and surrounded by aging barbed wire fencing. This was the land on which he would build his dream and hopefully a legacy.

The team of Sahara, Inc., FFKR Architects, and Alan Wilson (renowned track designer), was chosen by Miller to make his vision materialize. Sahara and FFKR had recently completed numerous successful sports projects together including Energy Solutions Arena (home to the Utah Jazz), Franklin Covey Field, and Miller Park Stadium at Brigham Young University. It seemed like a solid match for the fierce undertaking that lay ahead.

Sahara, Inc.’s president and CEO Tom Mabey had never been a part of a project that tied in so closely with his favorite pastime and hobby — automobile racing. Tom has competed on various professional circuits throughout the world over the past 14 years. However, when the opportunity arose to work with Larry H. Miller on a one-of-a-kind motorsports project, he was genuinely enthused — and for good reason.

In January of 2005, Sahara began preconstruction by paying a visit to the site. It was vast and intimidating, but there was little to see as it was covered with snow. Meetings began to occupy much of the preconstruction team’s time in attempt to turn ambiguities and problems into answers and solutions. As scope and scale became clearer, the project slowly grew in size and complexity.

The response from the racing world was unexpectedly huge. Club racing events were scheduled for April 2006 and the Grand Opening was scheduled for June 2006. Major events were scheduled for the following months including AMA Superbike, American LeMans Series, Grand-Am Series, and others. It was at this point that priorities and challenges had to be defined.

Priorities

• Earthwork, site utilities, and asphalt paving became the first priority. These critical sitework scopes had to be in place by October in order to guarantee the paving cured properly prior to snowfall.
• All buildings directly associated with the road course were given priority status, depending on their duration.

• Soils — The existing soils were poor, requiring removal and recompaction. Geogrid and geotextile fabric were placed under roadbase for soil stabilization.
• Performance Paving — The asphalt paving base course was placed, followed by the high performance wear course. The wear course required continuous tandem paving with shuttle buggies in order to ensure smooth seams and material consistency.
• Quality — Tolerances were very low on racetrack surfaces due to the smoothness required for high speed safety.
• Unique Specialties — The track was full of unique items such as special concrete curbing at turns, gravel traps, brake markers, guardrail systems, and tire walls. (Where do you find 48,000 new-but-defective tires anyway?)
• Rainfall — Scrapers began clearing and grubbing the site in early May of 2005 after the snow melted. Sitework managed to get weeks behind schedule right out of the chute. Tooele County experienced the wettest spring in 19 years, including a 100+ year rain.
• Safety — It can be difficult to watchdog construction activity on 511 acres and 22 buildings. At the peak, there were 37 pieces of earthwork equipment, dozens of dump trucks and trailers, and nearly 500 personnel on-site. Fortunately, there was plenty of space for parking.
• Building Design Details — In order to complete these buildings on-time, under budget, with quality workmanship, and in a safe manner, the team adopted the "keep it simple" school of thought. After all, "the devil is in the details." With 14 building types, the last thing the designers and detailers needed was to create new details for each building. It was decided early to keep the same theme throughout the entire facility. Typical systems and assemblies were utilized facilitating a swifter design and detailing process.
• Building Design Deadlines — The designers had a difficult time keeping pace with construction on the 22 buildings. There were times when buildings would have weeks of undesirable lag between concrete foundations and exterior masonry walls. Instead of attempting to design all 14 building types simultaneously, Sahara and FFKR were forced to prioritize buildings according to necessity and duration. Completing the designs in small groups assisted in keeping construction uninterrupted.
• Submittal Process — Long lead times on critical building materials like steel, glass, and electrical gear were not something Sahara could avoid. However, the team understood that they could expedite the submittal process in order to avoid schedule delays. A strict submittal schedule was established with all team members including subcontractors. The subcontractor issued submittal documents to Sahara. Sahara would then immediately deliver those submittals to the proper design personnel. The design-build team would then have a few days to review the submittals before meeting as a group with the subcontractor and his detailer. The group reviewed their comments and made modifications. At the end of the meeting the builder, designers, and subcontractor each left with an approved set of submittal documents. The subcontractor immediately began procurement and/or fabrication.
• Cost Control — Hundreds of cost models and cost model revisions were created by two full-time estimators between March 2005 and October 2005. Tracking actual costs was an intense challenge as well. Fifteen jobs were created within the project. Zero dollar subcontracts were established for the project with each subcontractor. When a subcontractor was awarded a new job, a change order was written for the particular site element or building. This made for simple and effective cost control, while eliminating unnecessary subcontract writing.
• Change and Modifications — The fast track approach to design-building required that Sahara, FFKR, and key subcontractors always be ready and willing to change or modify their course. It was an ever-changing environment that required intense planning, attention to detail, and patience.
• Management Staffing — All of these challenges were overcome by understanding the project needs and organizing the right people to manage the preconstruction and construction processes. The design-builder allocated numerous project managers, superintendents, foremen, carpenters, project engineers, project coordinators, safety and quality control managers, estimators, architects, engineers, and others in order to guarantee a successful experience.
• Subcontractor Morale — Many subcontractor field personnel spent several months working on Miller Motorsports Park. By March 2006, most were becoming exhausted from the cold winter, long hours, and the same scenery each day. Larry H. Miller, the project owner, made the decision to provide lunch each week for everyone working on the project. These were not typical lunches from the snack machine or the famous "gut mobile," but grilled meats, salad, chips, dessert, and drink served at tables in one of the completed garages where it was warm. Miller would make the rounds conversing and shaking hands with the people, expressing his appreciation for their efforts. At times there were more than 400 lunches served. The positive effects were amazing to witness. If you treat those around you with respect, express your appreciation for their hard work, and commend their workmanship, a spirit of comradeship and enthusiasm is developed and maintained.

After 18 months of design and construction, Miller Motorsports Park opened to the public and professional racing community. From early April 2006 until the snow returned, numerous amateur and professional events were held at the facility. The project has already received awards and accolades from top racing organizations around the world.

"Motorsports Facility of the Year" — a prestigious award granted by the Professional MotorSport World Expo in Cologne, Germany. The competition was judged by well-known racing professionals such as Michael Andretti of Andretti Green Racing, Tom Kristensen of Audi, and motor racing writer David Tremayne.

AutoWeek magazine wrote, "… best road course built in North America — or anywhere in the world — in the last 25 years."

"The new Miller Motorsports Park is the most impressive new road-racing venue in America," said Tim Mayer of International Motor Sportspark Association (IMSA).

"Best Private Project Over $5M Award" in 2006 by Intermountain Contractor magazine, a McGraw Hill Construction publication.

• Almost one million cubic yards of existing earth was moved during mass grading to build the facility. It would take nearly 100,000 dump trucks to transport this much earth. Lining up the trucks bumper to bumper, they would stretch from Tooele County to Denver, CO — a distance of 550 miles.
• Miller Motorsports Park has 4,079,000 s.f. of asphalt surface. This is enough asphalt to cover 71 football fields.
• Miller Motorsports Park used 14,295 cubic yards of concrete. This is equivalent to the weight of 750 Boeing 737 passenger jets.
• 48,000 tires were used for safety barriers — 43,000 on the road course and 5,000 on the kart track. This would be enough tires to equip 12,000 vehicles. 300,000 bolt-washer-nut assemblies were used to create the tire walls.
• Miller Motorsports Park is situated on 511 acres, which is 3.65 times larger than Disneyland.