Century Mile involved sustainable development. The greenfield conversion of 106 acres of farmer's land - located near the Edmonton International Airport - into a Class A horse racing track and entertainment complex.
The building consisted of two basements; a main floor gaming area and slot machines; a kitchen and two restaurants; several bars; offices; viewing arenas and VIP seating; and camera recording booths for the races. The horse racing facilities included a one-mile long track, facilities and walk outs, as well as tote boards, lighting and timing.
The project presented several challenges:
- tight timelines for design and construction
- the greenfield nature of the project meant that the land was ungraded and un-serviced; and required the movement of several hundred thousand cubic metres of earth and construction of several acres of pathways and hard surfacing
- the uniqueness of stakeholder requirements – i.e. construction of horse racing facilities are rare
- along with the normal constraints presented by working on a fully-occupied space, we also had to take into consideration the animals that would race on the track
Chandos approached the challenges by breaking the project into two phases: first, build the complex and then build of the horse racing facilities. By working on the track and the building separately, but concurrently, we were able to fast track the completion of both. With two teams working closely together, we were able to design, budget and construct the various pieces of the project quickly and holistically. Added in this process was the implementation of building information modelling (BIM) technology, allowing the earth moving quantities to be tracked in real time and enabling stakeholders to have virtual tours of the final product while design was still under way.
Because the project was on a converted farmers' field, the construction required extensive servicing and earth moving. We utilized aerial surveying to track the underground and earthworks progress, allowing the material balancing of the site to happen in real time and preventing costly rework, import or export.
We also relied on collaborative construction to engage all project stakeholders - this included experts in casino and race track design - to deliver a quality product virtually, prior to starting construction. We were able to provide accurate budgeting to the owner which allowed him to modify the design as required to meet pro formas.
The Century Mile Race Track and Casino was the first Class A horse racing facility built in Western Canada in decades.