2023 Southern California Best Projects
Award of Merit - Sports/Entertainment: NASCAR's Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum Temporary Racetrack
Photo courtesy New Valley Construction
NASCAR's Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum Temporary Racetrack
Los Angeles
Award of Merit
Submitted by: New Valley Construction
Owner: California Speedway Corp. in Care of NASCAR Design and Development
Lead Design Firm: Site Design Collaborative
General Contractor: New Valley Construction, a KBE Building Corp. Affiliate
Civil Engineer: Site Design Collaborative
Structural Engineer: Ponce Engineering and Construction
Subcontractors: All American Asphalt; Bald Spot Sports; Globaltranz Enterprises LLC; Just Pushing Dirt; Pavement Recycling; Ponce Engineering & Construction; Site Design Collaborative Inc.
Crews worked around the clock for the first half of this six-week project to create a temporary, quarter mile-long asphalt racetrack for NASCAR inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
NASCAR kicks off every race season with the Clash, a preseason exhibition race where Cup Series drivers compete for bragging rights instead of championship points. This year marked the second year that NASCAR’s Clash at the Coliseum race has been held inside the former Olympic stadium.
The project included laying down 130,000 sq ft of plywood and 30,000 sq ft of plastic sheeting to protect the stadium’s grass football field. Then came 10,000 cu yd of dirt layered on at about 4.5 ft deep, followed by 1,560 tons of special asphalt. An aggregate base course was built to create the banking surface of the track. Finally, crews topped the base with 14,000 sq yd of asphalt to create the quarter-mile racetrack.
Finally, crews added temporary Jersey barrier concrete walls around the track, softened on the inner surfaces by NASCAR’s SAFER barriers, and topped it all with 1,600 ft of catch fencing.
