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The C-Town Raceway
MidTown Park, City of Columbus, Texas
 

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Concept & Design

On Saturday June 15, 2002, David Stall roughed out a design for a public park raceway that could be used by tricycles, bicycles, BMX bicycles, pedal cars, scooters, skateboards, roller-skates, and rollerblades. 

A couple hours later the hand drawn draft was cleaned up with a CAD program and this drawing was completed.  The concrete surface has a typical width of eight-feet. The dashed contour lines represent a one-foot elevation separation.  There are four banked curves, one hill, and a set of moguls.  The overall dimension is 90 x 110.

During the next few days light poles and custom signs were added to this design.  Then detailed construction drawings were prepared to include site grades, drainage and pavement specifications.  (06.15.02)

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Concrete Forms

Work begins!  The area had been rough-graded months earlier and the contractor had to move very little dirt for the flatwork.  This photograph is looking south towards a half-court basketball court.  There had been about four-weeks required to complete all the construction plans.  It took another two-weeks to bid the work.  Then there was an unexpected six-week delay on the part of the contractor.  (09.17.02)

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Three days after starting, the forms were really taking shape.  Underground conduit and light poles had already been installed well in advance of the concrete work as seen in the photograph.  Each fixture is positioned to illuminate the surface without shadows, including the banked curves.  Three of the four lights will be activated by a push-button and will go off at 10pm.  The fourth light is seen in the rear of this photograph nearest the street corner and will stay on all night and illuminate the "C-Town Raceway" sign. (09.20.02)

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The amount of dirt fill required to reach finish grade under the 5,000 square-feet of track surface had been calculated.  The clean fill was delivered to the site before construction started and can be seen at the left in this photograph.  The contractor erected the outside forms to the specifications of the drawings before moving the fill into place with the Bobcat seen in the background.  (09.20.02)

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Five days into the form work the steel expansion joints, welded wire mesh and reinforcing bar were completely installed and ready for concrete.  David specified this reinforcement and four-inches of concrete with a light broom finish.  The steel expansion joint will be smooth so that the small hard wheels of roller skates, roller blades, and skateboards won't bump at the joints.  (09.23.02)

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Pouring Concrete

And then came the concrete trucks.  About seventy yards of concrete was needed to complete the track.  The first four trucks brought the stiff slump required for the banked curves, hill and moguls.  (09.24.02)

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From original concept drawing to finished plans there were no changes made to the track design.  Curves, widths, banks, grades, lengths all stayed the same.  Construction drawings introduced a slight overall slope to achieve drainage.  No on-the-fly changes were made during construction.  (09.24.02)

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Concrete Cures

A guard watched the concrete from completion at 7pm until about 11pm to discourage tampering.  By morning, when this photograph was taken, the concrete was well on its way to curing.  The continued appearance of grass shows just how close the rough-grading had been. Notice that the piles of fill dirt that had been along the street at the back of this picture are now gone, having been used within the forms.   (09.25.02)

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Concrete Forms Stripped

Even before the forms were removed neighborhood cyclists began "testing" the new track.  This photograph taken the day the forms were off ended up on the front page of the Colorado County Citizen newspaper.  This rider would jump from the face of one hump and land his back wheel on the down slope of the second hump.  (09.30.02)

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Early Users

Even though the concrete work is done, the C-Town Raceway is only 50% complete.  220 cubic yards of dirt has been ordered and will be compacted down to 170 cubic yards to build the small mountain that these concrete ribbons run through and around.  When completed there will be no grade separation at the edges of the track anywhere.  That's to say that there will not be any drop-offs.  Part of the original design feature is that any user who leaves the track will have a smooth transition to grass (not necessarily flat and level).  It is intended that this will also allow the track to be easily mowed with the only obstacles being lamp posts and specially designed traffic signs.  (10.04.02)

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As originally conceived, these moguls are jumps to 'big' kids and two small hills to the smaller kids.  To achieve the multipurpose, multi-user goal David designed the track to have different levels of challenge, yet not create an area that would attract 'extreme' sports.  It was a compromise that meant the track would intentionally fall short of the expectations of post-teen BMX and skateboarders.  (10.04.02)

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Each week the raceway, named C-Town Raceway, has attracted more and more children.  These boys on rollerblades and bicycles were on the track at the same time as the seven elementary school children with neither group interfering with the other.  (10.04.02)

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Another week later and still more kids!  This photograph was taken on Friday evening.  The photograph shows only a portion of the track and yet eight of the fifteen users on the track at that very moment can be seen.  One on a scooter, two on rollerblades and five on bicycles!   The car in the background is just one of the many that stop along the road to watch and marvel at the kids all over the raceway like ants.  (10.11.02)

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Improvements

The first of about nine signs that will be erected can be seen in this photograph.  On the left is the "Finish Gate."  The side you are looking at faces a 25-yard straightaway along the street side of the raceway.  There will be a broad white line painted across the track at one end with the word "START" painted in black.  Seventy-five feet ahead is another line with the word "FINISH."  Over the finish line is the typical finish gate which will have "FINISH" in bright red letters overhead.  There will also be a centerline stripe between the start and finish lines.  Built into the finish gate designed by David are flag holders at each end which will hold 3x5 checkered flags nearly six-feet above the sign.  The reverse side of the finish gate faces the street intersection and will be lettered, "C-TOWN RACEWAY," again in red letters.  A lamp post was positioned to illuminate the raceway sign from dusk to dawn.  (10.11.02)

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What a Success!

The C-Town Raceway has already proven to be the most popular addition to the city's newest park.  And, it's not even finished yet.  When complete the raceway will include authentic down-sized highway signs including: curve, speed limit 25, hill, rough road, yield and stop.  Some portions of the track will have dashed center lines and there will be limit lines at the intersections with yield or stop signs.  Beginning in the spring the raceway will be used for the Police Department's Bicycle Rodeo and the school's traffic safety programs.  The goal of designing a play area attractive to all children has succeeded.  (10.11.02)

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Finish Gate

Finish gate at C-Town Raceway gets lettering today.  The finish gate is designed with flag holders at each end.  When the project is complete there will be black-and-white checkered flags atop the finish gate.  (10.15.02)

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Lighting was designed to illuminate the sign all night.  This side of the sign faces the street and has the name of the raceway on it.  (10.15.02)

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Finish Grading

Fill and grading was completed on the C-Town Raceway in MidTown Park today.  (11.20.02)

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All of this freshly contoured surface will be grass.  (11.20.02)

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A "Start" line and centerline stripe will be painted on the straightaway towards the Finish Gate.  (11.20.02)

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Next step is the installation of signs.  (11.20.02)

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Erecting Traffic Signs

The specially fabricated traffic signs are being set into place.  These heavy and well reinforced signs are set in concrete.   (12.17.02)

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Each sign face is riveted to a welded aluminum frame.  In turn the frame is welded to the post which starts at the top of the sign.  (12.17.02)

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Each sign post is filled with mortar to prevent twisting and bending.  (12.17.02)

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There is one-foot clearance from the outermost edge of the sign to the edge of the track surface.  The traffic signs have been installed with the bottom of the sign (measured at the post) four-feet above grade.  (12.17.02)

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Installing Grass

A truck load of sod arrived at MidTown Park this morning.  (12.18.02)

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Pallets were unloaded along the C-Town Raceway.   (12.18.02)

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A city crew starts laying grass on the prepared surface.  (12.18.02)

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Seven specially designed and constructed traffic signs were erected earlier in the week.  (12.18.02)

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Sod was laid starting in the center of the track.   (12.18.02)

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Contours have been designed to provide smooth transitions from the track to the turf and ensure proper drainage.   (12.18.02)

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(12.18.02)

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Shortly after noon the interior area of the track was half filled with sod.   (12.18.02)

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Once the grass is installed stop lines, center stripes, and start-finish lines will be painted on the track.  (12.18.02)

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The raceway continues to be very, very popular for tricycles, bicycles, rollerblades, skateboards, and scooters.  (12.18.02)

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The raceway has also become a very popular for radio controlled cars.  (12.18.02)

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By the end of the day the raceway was transformed.    (12.18.02)

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The track looks great under the lights.  (12.18.02)

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There were nine bicycles on the C-Town Raceway Sunday afternoon.  This photograph captures seven of them.  (12.22.02)

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Bicycle Rodeo

The Columbus Police Department sponsors a Bicycle Rodeo at C-Town Raceway.  (03.01.03)

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A Texas Department of Public Safety State Trooper uses the raceway to teach traffic safety to a group of children.  (03.01.03)

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C-Town Raceway designer David Stall takes a ride on the track he designed and built.  (03.01.03)

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More than a year later the C-Town Raceway continues to be one of the most popular features of Mid-Town Park.  (06.02.04)

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Copyright 2002, 2003, 3004 David Stall

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