Circuit of the Americas Formula 1 Race Track

[East7thStreet]

Originally Posted by Armybrat

Yeah, I knew that.

At the SE corner of McAngus where it turns north to Elroy Road there is a subdivided 25 acres between me and the west side of the COTA property.

My Dad tried to buy that place in the '70s to add it to his 25, but the owner built a house on it and subdivided the rest which has a bunch of old trailers & workshops on it now.

Travis County just doubled my appraisal over last year.

The open 49 acres on my west side had a for sale sign on it last fall - my brother (he's half owner of our 25) has thought about buying it. That seems to be a decent askin' price. I've seen another 13 acre property on McAngus west of 130 with a higher price per acre.

I've been doing a few hundred property tax protests the past month so I've got a pretty good idea of values across the city. $16,000/acre is really a pretty good deal right now ...especially so close to the track. I'm surprised it's still on the market.

Coincidentally I am doing Duane Akina's tax protest research right now if any shagsters are reading Guy has got a pretty sweet house.

[BevoLJ]

You better give him a break! lol. That is the one coach we have who is almost as important as Coach Brown. =)

He could get just about any job anywhere he wants. Need to keep him happy.

Heck there are many of the 40 who would rather lose Coach Brown before we lost Coach Akina.

[Armybrat]

Originally Posted by East7thStreet

I've been doing a few hundred property tax protests the past month so I've got a pretty good idea of values across the city. $16,000/acre is really a pretty good deal right now ...especially so close to the track. I'm surprised it's still on the market.

Coincidentally I am doing Duane Akina's tax protest research right now if any shagsters are reading Guy has got a pretty sweet house.

Where on the Shag can I find that? I don't read all the forums.

[turn1]

Some asphalt has been laid on turn 1.

No pics yet. Sorry. Mama had the camera & all I had was my phone, which is great up close, but no good for distant detail.

I should be able to get some shots of it on Friday morning on the way home from work.

ETA:

[turn1]

‎...and here's a great shot, by on of our FB friends from a commercial jet yesterday morning.

[turn1]

Mexico City newspaper Reforma says in a May 19 article that COTA officials are blocking Hellmund's attempts to hold a MotoGP race in Austin:



Reforma.com

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...7614878&type=1

[turn1]

Draft 1 of the COTA transportation plan is out in the open. I saw it first hand earlier this afternoon, but Austin Race Hotels has done a great job of hitting on many key aspects of the plan (@AustinRaceHotel):

- NEW Circuit of the Americas traffic plan, proposed shuttle sites, on-site parking, bike & pedestrian info: http://www.kvue.com/news/Circuit-of-...153366805.html

- Estimated shuttle transport time from downtown #Austin: 80 mins. Private car time to exit the Circuit of the Americas: 2-3 hours
- CoTA bike parking at Moore's Crossing bridge is famous for being haunted. Woo!
- Cyclists will not be able to ride onto COTA property. There will be a park & lock at the haunted bridge ...ahem, Moore Bridge Road.
- According to this document, VIP attendees include #F1, COTA, & local officials, media, participants, owners, sponsors, & other stakeholders.
- Hm, looks as though car pooling in addition to the provided shuttles will be advised.
- Here come the #Austin #F1 schedule of events (under development): Thursday, November 15  Formula One practice, 10am to 4pm (She didn't get that wrong. The document says that.)
- Friday, November 16  Spectator shuttles, 8am to 7pm (start/end times under development)  Formula One Practice Sessions 1 and 2 10am to 4pm
- Saturday, November 17  Spectator shuttles, 8am - 7pm (start/end times under development)  F1 Practice Session 3 & Qualifying, 10am - 4pm
- Sunday, November 18 - United States Formula One Grand Prix, 1:00 pm  Spectator shuttles, 7am-8pm (start/end times under development)
- It's estimated times for now, for the people parking their own cars on the lot. Roads around the circuit are tiny
- "Parking permits will be issued along with the tickets no later than four weeks prior to event."
- Note this, travelers >>> Cash Parking Lots (day of the event) will not be available on-site at COTA.
- Taxis, hotel complimentary shuttle service to & from COTA will not be allowed in.
- Hotel shuttles will be allowed to shuttle to/from the COTA park-n-ride lots.
- Actively seeking bus/motorcoach providers who have low-emission buses  Bicycle access route, from downtown Austin under development
- Parking permits for RVs could be available early in June.
- The plan includes suggestions to help with traffic in the future. For example, a light-rail to airport & CoTA

[Spaceman]

Originally Posted by turn1

Draft 1 of the COTA transportation plan is out in the open. I saw it first hand earlier this afternoon, but Austin Race Hotels has done a great job of hitting on many key aspects of the plan (@AustinRaceHotel):

It is a logistic nightmare!!! SE Travis County...there is NOTHING out there to support an event this size...My driveway is wider than HWY 812...Wow F1 people, you wake up in Monaco and end up in Elroy...A McClaren on cider blocks with the tires gone...Don't worry there are a dozen used tire dealers in the neighborhood..Hey Fernando Alonso those people speaking Spanish have no idea where Spain is located and they want your Rolex....OMG, what if it rains....some jetsetters will never make it back to Europe.. I plan to go but I'm bringing my $190 an hour psychiatrist to get me through this Bosch sketch. F1 in 2012, tractor pull after that..
Sorry for the rant but I just saw the Round Rock Depress drop another and I've been drinking

[hookem]

Here is the traffic plan with map/schematics:
http://media2.kxan.com/PDF/SecondTraffic.pdf

It's actually pretty amazing how many lanes overall they have coming in/out using all the little roads and routes. I'm sure the intersections will all be controlled by traffic cops, so that should help. They are still expecting a 3+ hour wait in/out, but I'm thinking it won't be as horrible as people originally assumed.

[BevoLJ]

Originally Posted by Spaceman

It is a logistic nightmare!!! SE Travis County...there is NOTHING out there to support an event this size...My driveway is wider than HWY 812...Wow F1 people, you wake up in Monaco and end up in Elroy...A McClaren on cider blocks with the tires gone...Don't worry there are a dozen used tire dealers in the neighborhood..Hey Fernando Alonso those people speaking Spanish have no idea where Spain is located and they want your Rolex....OMG, what if it rains....some jetsetters will never make it back to Europe.. I plan to go but I'm bringing my $190 an hour psychiatrist to get me through this Bosch sketch. F1 in 2012, tractor pull after that..
Sorry for the rant but I just saw the Round Rock Depress drop another and I've been drinking

It's 5 o'clock somewhere right?

[Spaceman]

Originally Posted by BevoLJ

It's 5 o'clock somewhere right?

Yeah, the Dell Diamond

[electricron]

Originally Posted by hookem

Here is the traffic plan with map/schematics:
http://media2.kxan.com/PDF/SecondTraffic.pdf

It's actually pretty amazing how many lanes overall they have coming in/out using all the little roads and routes. I'm sure the intersections will all be controlled by traffic cops, so that should help. They are still expecting a 3+ hour wait in/out, but I'm thinking it won't be as horrible as people originally assumed.

Most highway engineers would suggest the maximum amount of traffic per lane per hour is approximately 2000 vehicles. That's in a smooth flow of traffic, not stop and go traffic. Just looking at the lanes (green arrows) entering departing the COTA parking lots, not everywhere else because the parking lots themselves is where the congestion will eventually start, there's 7 lanes available.
Some math (most favorable and unlikely) = 7 x 2000 = 14,000 vehicles per hour. Over 3 hours, at best 42,000 vehicles. I'm not even sure how many parking spaces that will be available.
Personally, I expect traffic jams like at Kentucky Speedway last year for it's first Nascar "Cup" race where ticket holders never parked, the race was over before they even got to the parking lot, and they had a freeway available all the way to the parking lots....

Good luck COTA.

[hookem]

Originally Posted by electricron

Most highway engineers would suggest the maximum amount of traffic per lane per hour is approximately 2000 vehicles. That's in a smooth flow of traffic, not stop and go traffic. Just looking at the lanes (green arrows) entering departing the COTA parking lots, not everywhere else because the parking lots themselves is where the congestion will eventually start, there's 7 lanes available.
Some math (most favorable and unlikely) = 7 x 2000 = 14,000 vehicles per hour. Over 3 hours, at best 42,000 vehicles. I'm not even sure how many parking spaces that will be available.

There are only 15,000 parking spots at the track, plus 500-750 shuttle buses that are supposed to carry about 80% of attendees from park-n-ride locations at the Expo Center and downtown by the state parking garages.

I'm pretty sure Kentucky had at least twice that many spaces, and I don't know how much they used shuttles. I also believe they didn't do any contraflow, until the police started doing it halfway into the race itself. Also a lot of reports that Kentucky messed up in directing the parking once at the gate, including having to turn people away because of capacity or no parking pass. It seems that CotAs plan will mitigate that by closing the streets off to vehicles without a pass; that way, no one should have to be turned around at the gate itself; they can be turned around at strategic locations a good distance away from the track (if they don't have a pass).

[turn1]

Construction resumed yesterday after being idle for the long weekend. Here are some photos:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4...4878&type=1

[turn1]

@statesmanF1 just tweeted that COTA has made it official re: ALMS.

It's set for spring of next year.


Is MotoGP next?

[BevoLJ]

Please forgive me my ignorance, but what is ALMS?

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by BevoLJ

Please forgive me my ignorance, but what is ALMS?

American Le Mans series

http://www.alms.com/

[BevoLJ]

Very cool. I am a bit confused though. Looking at those pictures some of the cars look like the F1 futuristic race cars and some look like the NASCAR normal street/muscle cars. Does ALMS have different races for different cars?

[The ATX]

This link explains it somewhat. There are different classes:

http://www.alms.com/alms101/classes

[BevoLJ]

Awesome! Thank Hill Country.