Transforming 31M Pounds of Steel Against the Odds

The renovation process of working with 31 million pounds of pre-existing steel on the Daytona Rising project.

Iconic. This distinction undoubtedly applies to Daytona International Speedway® (DIS) and the DAYTONA 500®, racing’s premier event for nearly 60 years. The $400M, 2.5 million square foot DIS reimagining project presented unique design, engineering and build challenges. Barton Malow and the DAYTONA Rising project team had to implement innovative technology and process solutions to successfully meet owner expectations and truly reimagine this American icon. More than 31 million pounds of steel made up the backbone of DIS, literally and figuratively weighing heavily on the team.More than 31 million pounds of steel made up the backbone of DIS, literally and figuratively weighing heavily on the team.

Heavy Metal

Transforming a grandstand structure into the world’s first motorsports stadium at 101,500 seats meant providing the proper structural foundation. The significant amount of reusable pre-existing steel immediately presented Barton Malow with the need to establish which pieces of steel would stay and which needed to be removed to accommodate the project team’s transformative vision and add the owner’s desired modernization while preserving the integrity of the existing structure.

“We don’t have any as-built drawings as this facility was built 60 years ago, and we don’t know exactly where steel beams are, and that’s exactly where we’re going to be building our seats and stands.”

“The Daytona project is complex in the sense that we are building on an existing structure. We don’t have any as-built drawings, as this facility was built 60 years ago, and we don’t know exactly where steel beams are, and that’s exactly where we’re going to be building our seats and stands,” explained Project Engineer Jennifer Younes.

Matt Taylor of ROSSETTI Architects, Design Lead on DAYTONA Rising, echoes, “To make the best sightlines on the track, we had to coordinate a lot of existing structure to integrate into the design. We needed to scan the existing steel to sort of see how it all fit together.”

To help determine how the existing steel could be integrated with new materials, the team took estimation processes digital. Steel takeoffs were performed on calibrated PDFs and shared in Bluebeam Revu, allowing Barton Malow to calculate potential cost differences based on established measurements and various proposed materials. The digital format also allowed for the various scenarios to be easily shared with the owner.

Because the project involved a large amount of pre-existing steel, Barton Malow Senior Project Engineer Tyler Donnell had wondered if there was an easier way to perform the takeoffs for the project. “How were we going to estimate this job? We ended up doing it all using Bluebeam Revu’s takeoffs functionality. It let us deploy a different way of thinking. Throughout the entire design phase inside of Bluebeam, we could reflect to the owner the exact quantity that we changed, the exact quantity at the price change, and the exact quantity at the estimate change,” explains Donnell. “For me, it took two seconds to go in and adjust the measurement space in Revu and export it to Excel.”

“How were we going to estimate this job? We ended up doing it all using Bluebeam Revu’s takeoffs functionality. It let us deploy a different way of thinking.”

TruTeam was a critical trades firm providing insulation services on the project. TruTeam Project Manager Mike Kehrer’s team also performed PDF takeoffs, which helped them distill information for the installers. “The estimator is using Revu to do the takeoff for the job. They highlight all the areas that we’re going to be working in, and Revu consolidates all the measurements and what material’s going to be used and where. We were able to take that information and put it in a single document. And the installers knew what material to pull out of stock, to put in their truck to bring out to the jobsite. And they knew exactly where to install it.”

Growing Pains

The location of the DAYTONA Rising project presented unique environmental challenges to the Barton Malow team. The Speedway’s proximity to the ocean at Daytona Beach meant working around the water table, which further complicated planning.

“The project has about 2,800 auger cast piles that go 45 feet deep into the ground, and with a water table that varies sometimes between two and a half feet to six feet, and during rainy season can be as little as one foot underground, you can run into water just by putting a shovel into the ground,” says Donnell.

“During rainy season, with [the water table] as little as one foot underground, you can run into water just by putting a shovel into the ground.”

The project’s legendary Sprint Tower also needed to be demolished to make way for a tower nearly four times as big in size that could accommodate the motorsport stadium’s 60 new luxury trackside suites. The formerly two-layered grandstands would become a seven-layer stadium with 40 escalators, 17 elevators, 85 interior buildings, twice as many restrooms, 3,000 speakers, 1,400 television screens, 4,268 miles of fiber optic cable, and 1,600 miles of data cable providing modern amenities like high-definition viewing screens and free Wi-Fi to all fans entering the newly added five major fan entrances, or “fan injectors.”

The complex tower demolition was planned out in a 18-page plan, viewable in Revu by all project stakeholders, as Barton Malow surgically dismantled 30 separate sections of 25,000 pounds of concrete over 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 30 days with the crane anchored on the outside of the stadium.

Critical Communication

To orchestrate this complex level of necessary coordination, project communication and workflow efficiency were critical. Barton Malow deployed collaboration platform Bluebeam Studio, providing an environment for all project stakeholders to work simultaneously in real time to address crucial build challenges. Barton Malow hosted and engaged in 1,400 Bluebeam Studio Sessions with their project partners. Even trades worker coordination was facilitated by using Revu to execute punchlists with the ability to add PDF markups and create live statuses.

Of over 31 million pounds of steel on site, 93% of it needed to be galvanized to match the pre-existing steel. Two fabricators were needed to complete the massive renovation, working from opposite ends until they met in the middle.

All told, project teams successfully installed 57,240 pieces of steel with 296 workers clocking 300,000 hours of labor. Of over 31 million pounds of steel on site, 93% of it needed to be galvanized to match the pre-existing steel. Two different fabricators, SteelFab and FabArc, were needed to complete the massive grandstand renovation, working from opposite ends until they met in the middle to wrap up the job—a testament to Barton Malow’s efficiency and consistency in keeping project documents digitally updated and accessible.

The Checkered Flag

While digital workflows were certainly critical to the success of this project, Project Director Jason McFadden is quick to give the credit of success where it is due. “It’s a lot to do with the technology tools, but a lot more to do with the team that we’ve empowered on the project that got behind the culture, got behind the alignment, and got behind the goal.”

International Speedway Corporation Project Manager Bruce Rein also considers the project to be a success. “It’s all about the end experience,” he says while surveying the grandeur of the stadium’s new façade. “It kept a little piece of history. Any fan that’s been going here for 50 years, or even the new fans, they can walk in and say ‘Wow, I’m inside of the iconic Daytona International Speedway.’ And they can understand where it was and where we are at this moment.”

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