The amount is a drop in the bucket compared with their deficit but hard case to make in today's political climate.
How noble of Mr. Doggett to show concern for the budget now. It's a shame that he didn't voice the same concerns when his district representing Houston got $14mm for the NCAA BB tourney, or when Dallas got ~$30mm for the Super Bowl. Under the new district maps, Sen. Kirk Watson's district isn't going to include the circuit. Does this mean he has to return the COTA jacket?
How does not having vertical construction permission (which has been stated is what they are missing because they haven't convinced the gov't to pay for the road expansion yet) stop them from finishing the excavation? Or pouring the pads for the buildings? Or putting up the track walls, or any of the other numerous things in their timeline that remain unfinished yet are not part of vertical construction? I deal with scheduling and timeline issues on a daily basis in my work... I can't remember a time in our whole history where I put entire projects on the back burner just because one small aspect of the project was delayed. On the contrary - I would work double-time on the other aspects of the project so that the delayed aspect would not be fatal, once it was resolved. As for the buffer... it accounts for weather delays and other potential delays. Dipping into it for reasons other than those it was made for defeats it's purpose.
I don't disagree with you that these politicians are playing dumb about the cost/benefit and riding the coattails of taxpayer angst, even if that angst is meritless. However, we are talking about a quarter billion dollar commitment, here. Yes, that does only represent something like 1% of their budget gap, but axe 20 or 30 such projects and all of a sudden you're a quarter of the way there, without cutting anything most people care about. It's mostly a problem of perceptions... it just looks bad to be spending $250mm when needed services are being cut back. The "but it brings in so much money" is a line FOM would love to have the public believe, but there is nothing to back it up. Why is it that so few locations around the world seem to reap the benefits of this income? And if they do achieve it, why are almost none of them willing to happily continue subsidizing F1? Look at all the races that are gone or going. If there was real ROI there, they would be keeping the races. But they are not. Bernie makes it sound like he selectively allows (or not) venues to get on the calendar, if they are special enough. Fact it, all that makes them special is their willingness to pay his fee... and most aren't... like all of the old-school tracks. And even the new-school tracks are falling by the wayside. Like Turkey.
The State isn't putting up a quarter of a billion dollars, they're taking out $25MM from the general budget, and advancing it to them. Each year, after the event, they use the tax revenue generated to repay the amount advanced. If their is a shortfall, then the promoters cover the difference. If they don't make back the money one year or pay the difference, they default on it, and don't get the money the next year. They have poured some concrete.....working on drainage stuff too If you deal with scheduling, could you hazard a guess as to which would be cheaper. Pay the 5 or 6MM for the road improvements, or pay some people to work 7 days a week later on (if needed)
As I understand, the $25mm/year is paid directly to Bernie and FOM. The state will create an encumbrance in their budget to the tune of $25mm/yr for a period of 10 years. It's a quarter billion dollar commitment that is offset by expected increased revenues. The idea is it gets paid back from tax revenues and AustinF1 failing that, but it still costs hard cash (i.e. an actual check is cut and sent to FOM) - it is paid before the tax revenues come in, IIRC something that has never been done before. As I said, this is largely a problem of perception - because it's real money being spent, so most people will see that and dismiss the "we'll make it up on the other end" part - especially since it's relatively easy for opponents to shoot holes in the validity of the ROI of that spend (look at Turkey, Indy, Japan, Magny-Cours, Nurburgring, Spa, etc). Well, here are some of the things that should have been completed by now: A1320 Mass Excavation Site Clearing 20 15‐Feb‐11 A 14‐Mar‐11 A1310 Excavate to Establish Access Road (Wandering Creek Blvd)20 26‐Feb‐11 21‐Mar‐11 A1860 Mass Excavation Pond/Sediment Areas 5 04‐Mar‐11 09‐Mar‐11 A1030 Mass Excavation Track Area 30 08‐Mar‐11 11‐Apr‐11 A1260 Mass Excavate for Tunnel Construction 20 10‐Mar‐11 01‐Apr‐11 A1620 Mass Excavation Pit/Team/Media/Medical Areas 30 28‐Mar‐11 30‐Apr‐11 A1040 Mass Excavation Main Grandstand Area 25 14‐Apr‐11 12‐May‐11 A1770 Tunnel Construction 1 75 16‐Mar‐11 11‐Jun‐11 A1110 Track/Run Off Areas Excavation (Starting on Pit Straight) 100 20‐Apr‐11 16‐Aug‐11 A9500 Mass Excavate for Tunnel Construction (1) 15 15‐Feb‐11 03‐Mar‐11 A9490 Tunnel Construction ‐ Summary Activity 75 02‐Mar‐11 27‐May‐11 A6220 Excavation for Drainage/Storm Lines Tunnel 1 5 02‐Mar‐11 07‐Mar‐11 A6230 Install Drainage/Storm lines 5 08‐Mar‐11 12‐Mar‐11 A6240 Moisture Treat Condition Surrounding Soil 10 14‐Mar‐11 24‐Mar‐11 A6250 Drill/Install Piles 15 25‐Mar‐11 11‐Apr‐11 A6260 Prep/Form/Pour Grade Beams 15 12‐Apr‐11 28‐Apr‐11 A6270 Prep/Form/Pour Retention Walls West 15 29‐Apr‐11 16‐May‐11 A6280 CIP Tunnel Walls Prep/Form/Rebar 30 29‐Apr‐11 03‐Jun‐11 A4955 Prep/Form/Pour Retention Walls East End 15 07‐May‐11 24‐May‐11 All of the mass excavation should be done, retention walls should be installed, tunnel should be well underway, and more. It seems from the aerial pictures that none of the above has been completed, and most of it hasn't been started. So we would have to say they are, what, at least 2 months behind at this point (given some of the stuff slated to begin in March hasn't started yet)? As for the cost of this delay - it's anyones guess, but a very rough number would be to assume 1,000 people working on the project at an annual cost of $50k per, which is $25/hr per man hour (that doesn't mean just salary). If they need to catch 60 days of lost time at 10 hours per day, we're talking 600,000 man hours lost, which would be $15 million just in hours. There would be other increased costs too (materials, shipments, etc). I doubt anyone could put anything like a real cost on the delay, but I think it would be fair to say it almost certainly would exceed whatever the cost of the road construction would be, probably by a large amount.
Austin City Limits it's a music show and the three day festival does indeed book up a lot of hotels, but musicians don't necessarily use the same Suite that Bernie would need....
That's what he wanted, his name 'heard 'round the world..... Now PLEASE get back to representing your constituents and STFU. We should organize all the F1 fans in his district to do an email blast and crash his InBox....
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A lot more materials have been delivered.....more workers now too (probably guess around 100 personal vehicles on site) more temporary trailers there as well.... They're doing monthly aerial pictures throughout the duration of the project, those will probably show a bit more of the work.
That calculation is utterly pointless: As I pointed out they are not behind and so even if they did all this construction work now, they would simply be finishing a couple of months too early at which point they wouldn't be incurring these costs either. What's the tower in the background? Is that the Austin airport? In which case this track is located in perfect vicinity. Bernie (and I) likes that.
Yes they are behind, indisputably. We have their own construction schedule and we can see from that they the things that are designated to be completed, aren't. The November deadline is something that was invented on this forum and is pure speculation. We know the deadline, it is the end of June, 2011. Furthermore, the leeway built into their published plan is for things other than what is happening now. It is not for "whatever reason we feel like", it is for weather delays and such. It's like being at -$200 in your bank account, but claiming you are not broke because you have $1,500 in overdraft protection
A 34 day weather contingency is very generous for Texas. I think what he was getting at that a July finish date implies that the race is going to be in November paired with Brazil, instead of in the summer time paired with Canada, as everyone else seems to be thinking.... Why oh, why did i ever post that link
We have a schedule. Whether that's the real one or not, we don't know. Since you are familiar with project management (based on your post below) you know that there is always more than one schedule. There are revisions, corrections and new baselines. What we have might be an early draft that's already outdated. You are mixing things up: I brought up November 2011 as the deadline for the FIA/Bernie to make their decision about the 2012 calendar. The construction deadline is most likely October 2012 because that's when the race will be held (or November 2012). You can call these dates speculation but in that case you also have to accept that the June deadline is equal speculation since it could be just an early draft.
I don't understand why people keep insisting that the cosntruction end-date for this fiasco is October and that the race surely must be in November. The F1 calendar traditionally has room through June but not in October or November. Just because COTA puts out some nonsense timeline doesn't make it so. Just because Korea received all sorts of extension right to the last minute doesn't mean that COTA will get the same treatment. Todt has been clear that the FIA doesn't want another Korea mess. It doesn't matter what Bernie wants. If I had to make a bet it would be that the date is scheduled for June and that puts the "90-day before" inspection in March. We all know there's no way this gets done by then. So until the FIA announces the calendar late this year I suggest we all just stop speculating.
I explained it here already: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=140513676&postcount=1452
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Personally I am looking forward to touring the track this Saturday - especially since we have so many detractors intent on seeing it fail! Nothing like first hand experience to make an opinion! Although it's more likely to be in a 4 X 4, it's still very exciting!
It's NOT a large airport, it's the old Bergstrom AFB, redeveloped. You might fly into Houston and we can be there in three hours drive. Or San Antonio is one hour to the south.
