Century Mile involved sustainable development through the greenfield conversion of 106 acres of farmland located near the Edmonton International Airport into a Class A horse racing track and entertainment complex.
The building included two basement levels, a main-floor gaming area with slot machines, a kitchen and two restaurants, several bars, office space, viewing areas with VIP seating, and race control and recording booths. The horse racing facilities featured a one-mile track, support facilities and walkouts, as well as tote boards, lighting, and timing systems.
The project presented several challenges, including:
- Tight timelines for design and construction
- Greenfield conditions, with ungraded and unserviced land requiring the movement of several hundred thousand cubic metres of earth and the construction of extensive pathways and hard surfaces
- Unique stakeholder requirements, as horse racing facilities are highly specialized and uncommon
- Operating constraints associated with a fully occupied site, as well as the need to consider the safety and wellbeing of the horses during construction
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.
A collaborative construction approach was used to engage all project stakeholders, including experts in casino and racetrack design, allowing the team to virtually deliver and validate the project prior to construction. This approach enabled accurate budgeting, allowing the owner to refine the design to meet pro forma requirements.
The Century Mile Race Track and Casino was the first Class A horse racing facility built in Western Canada in decades.
