I'm not an engineer but I'm usually civil. First problem concrete is more
than 10 bucks a yard. best price I get is about $30. Ever tried pouring
concrete slabs by yourself when there is 10 yards on the truck getting hot?
you will need at least some casual Labor at about 15 bucks per hour per man.
Unless you plan on buying a used bulldozer( 10K and up) you will need grade
work done at about $50-$60 per machine hour.You will need a gravel base for
the concrete(or asphalt) and moisture barrier if the area freezes in winter.
Unless you hit the lottery You might consider autocross european style where
they use muddy roads. then all you need is the bulldozer or just buy the
dyno ;)
Rick
----- Original Message -----
From: <dg50@daimlerchrysler.com>
To: <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 2:53 PM
Subject: Any Civil Engineers in the House?
> OK, here's something else to chew on.
>
> It seems that I may be buying a farm soon.
>
> Niner wants a house. She wants to move out of our apartment, and get a
real
> house. I want a big-ass garage - actually, I want a proper race car shop -
> and I've worked in a shop that was a converted barn before, and that works
> well. So we're going out looking for hobby farms that are close to Windsor
> (of which there are plenty) that have decent houses with modern facilities
> and a big-ass concrete-floored barns.
>
> However, these farms tend to come with large slices of land attached. I'm
> not about to take up farming (although I may sub-let land to Real Farmers)
> so I may well find myself with a large tract of land 30min outside of
> Detroit sometime in the next few months.
>
> Hmmmm.....
>
> A 4wd chassis dyno costs $60,000 US. That's $100K CAN. That's a whole
lotta
> coin. So stuffing a dyno into my dream shop isn't a likely near-term
> possibility.
>
> But a back-of-the-napkin calculation says that a 200'X200' pad, at a depth
> of 4", works out to roughly 40 cubic yards of concrete. At roughly 10
cubic
> yards of concrete per truckload, and roughly $100 per truckload, then that
> pad costs $4000. Still not chump change, but a 200 sqft pad is a decent
> sized skidpad....
>
> OK, so 1/8 mile is 880 ft. Let's call it 800 to make the math easier.
> That's 16 "squares" at $4000 each, for a total of $64,000. Still cheaper
> than the Dynojet - but now there's 16 acres of concrete down. I'm thinking
> that's large enough to run a pretty decent sized autocross course on....
> and it's WAY cheaper than I thought. And I bet paving with asphalt is even
> cheaper per square foot.
>
> All of a sudden, the idea of building a dedicated autocross facility
> doesn't seem quite so far-fetched. I had always figured an initial price
in
> the millions, not the tens of thousands. Can building a facility *really*
> be cheaper than buying a Dynojet?
>
> This is all back-of-the-napkin stuff. An exercise in entertainment.
Playing
> a little "what-if" with some numbers. I certainly am not realistically
> expecting to build my own autocross site anytime soon.
>
> But still...
>
> Anybody know:
>
> 1) How big (lengthXwidth, in feet) the competition surfaces are at
> a) Harrisburg
> b) Petersburg
> c) Topeka, South Course
>
> 2) A rough price per square foot for asphalt paving
>
> 3) If 4" of concrete is thick enough. If not, how much thicker? How much
> more $ per square foot does rebar etc cost?
>
> 4) Any other important details that have been overlooked? Assume that
> unskilled/semi-skilled labour is available for free for really basic
tasks,
> like building forms, laying and tying rebar, digging drainage ditches,
etc.
>
> Any civil engineers in the house?
>
> DG
>
>
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