Allan Heydorn, Editor
PAVING: Non-Parking Lot Award Winner
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Racetrack Construction a “Flat Out” Winner
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Sunland Asphalt & Construction relies on stellar subgrade and echelon paving to meet tight specifications for racetrack project DESPITE ITS 40-year tenure in business and growing list of maintenance and construction services, Sunland Asphalt & Construction has only begun pursuing what Michael Baer, Sunland’s national accounts division manager, terms “specialty” work. If the job constructing a racetrack at Apex Motor Club is any indication, the move into specialty work is paying off because construction of the racetrack – Sunland’s first effort at building a track from the ground up – has won Pavement’s Paving: Non-Parking Lot Award for 2020.
The Apex Track The Apex Motor Club in Maricopa, AZ is a unique social environment for auto enthusiasts where members have exclusive access to the private race track to drive at their leisure. Created for drivers of all experience levels and vehicle types, this project was designed by award winning race track designers from Motorsports Service International and was built to world-class racing standards, otherwise known as the FIA standards. The project scope included a 2.3-mile circuit with a 3,400-ft. straightaway, as well as a helicopter landing pad. Solterra Materials, Sunland’s sister materials company, designed and supplied over 16,000 tons of specially formulated asphalt, specifically for the Apex track.
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Eventually the Maricopa site will have condo garages, a shooting range and plans are already underway to build a two additional tracks on site. “Our team did an amazing job. It was an all-hands-on-deck project approach and we had crews from various disciplines in our Phoenix, Public Works, Civil Tucson, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico divisions come together to make this successful,” Baer says. “We pride ourselves on partnering with our customers and our partnership with Apex was no exception. We were involved from the beginning to provide feedback of the design, what the crosssections were going to be and the materials for construction.”
Good Subgrade & Echelon Paving Construction of the base, fine grading, and placement of 45,000 tons of recycled concrete base course was meticulously groomed by Sunland’s Civil Division. “We really made sure the subgrade for this project was solid and graded properly. We spend a lot of time perfecting the subgrade because whatever
To complete this project, Sunland utilized three pavers, three material transfer vehicles, 20 rollers, 50 dump trucks and a crew of 47 Sunland employee owners running continuously.
material you lay on top of it will follow the subgrade. So, for good paving in general, the better the subgrade, the better the paving,” Baer says. Once the subgrade was in place, Sunland utilized a technique called echelon paving, which is the practice of paving multiple lanes of an asphalt roadway, side by side with the adjacent paving machines offset. Baer says the echelon paving technique ensures the smoothest possible surface used for race tracks and is not often used for typical roadway, street or highway projects. The track was paved in two lifts: a 2-in. base and a 1-in. surface lift. Surface tolerance for the project was 1/8 in. on a 16-ft. straightedge. “Due to the track specifications, we used three pavers to cover the 40-ft. width of the track to maintain tolerance to meet the specifications,” Baer says. In order to achieve the seamless
February 2020 • PAVEMENT • www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement
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