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Post by mmi16 on Aug 4, 2023 15:28:28 GMT -8
Well, COSTCO does pride itself as a discount store.
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Post by hairyscotsman on Oct 23, 2023 22:42:27 GMT -8
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Post by thirddegree on Oct 24, 2023 5:28:27 GMT -8
COTA would make for a great Amazon Fulfillment Center. Miami is the real USGP.
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Post by hairyscotsman on Oct 26, 2023 12:13:34 GMT -8
So ... COTA chairman: If there are parts to the F1 track that need to be fixed, we'll do it ... www.statesman.com/story/sports/motorsports/2023/10/25/cota-track-austin-f1-max-verstappen-circuit-of-the-americas-bobby-epstein/71318358007/First off, I love how he says "IF" the track needs fixing, as if there's some doubt. He's said he'd fix it many times before. You've all seen the results of those 'fixes'. Then there's this: The author says there that ... Eh, no, and no. Not true. COTA received about $38 Million from the State of Texas for the 2022 USGP. They've asked for about $38 Million more for this year's race. I've looked all the way back to 2012, and the least COTA has received from the State is about $23 Million in 2015 ($19.6M state share). So they did receive under $20M one time, eight years ago, but that's not what they receive every year. It's only gone up since then, dramatically. COTA has received more than $350 Million so far since 2012. About $300 Million for F1 races, and about $50 Million for MotoGP. And they've received more for smaller races over the years as well. The last 3 annual subsidy payments to COTA for F1 alone have averaged about $33 Million. There's also been no recent cut by the Governor. He cut it somewhat for 2015, and since then it has skyrocketed. Do reporters ever do their homework any more? Well, no. Not many at least. And this is how Epstein continues to spread his misinformation. He drops nuggets like this, but doesn't allow them to quote him saying it. He does it over and over and over, because the typical 'journalist' these days is lazy as fuck, probably not all that sharp to begin with, and loves the intoxicating access.
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Post by pushtopass on Oct 26, 2023 12:19:08 GMT -8
So ... COTA chairman: If there are parts to the F1 track that need to be fixed, we'll do it ... www.statesman.com/story/sports/motorsports/2023/10/25/cota-track-austin-f1-max-verstappen-circuit-of-the-americas-bobby-epstein/71318358007/First off, I love how he says "IF" the track needs fixing, as if there's some doubt. He's said he'd fix it many times before. You've all seen the results of those 'fixes'. Then there's this: The author says there that ... Eh, no, and no. Not true. COTA received about $38 Million from the State of Texas for the 2022 USGP. They've asked for about $38 Million more for this year's race. I've looked all the way back to 2012, and the least COTA has received from the State is about $23 Million in 2015 ($19.6M state share). So they did receive under $20M one time, eight years ago, but that's not what they receive every year. It's only gone up since then, dramatically. COTA has received more than $350 Million so far since 2012. About $300 Million for F1 races, and about $50 Million for MotoGP. And they've received more for smaller races over the years as well. The last 3 annual subsidy payments to COTA for F1 alone have averaged about $33 Million. There's also been no recent cut by the Governor. He cut it somewhat for 2015, and since then it has skyrocketed. Do reporters ever do their homework any more? Well, no. Not many at least. And this is how Epstein continues to spread his misinformation. He drops nuggets like this, but doesn't allow them to quote him saying it. He does it over and over and over, because the typical 'journalist' these days is lazy as fuck, probably not all that sharp to begin with, and loves the intoxicating access. good thing TX has all that oil money!
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Post by snuffmoviestar on Oct 26, 2023 16:08:50 GMT -8
Last weeks news.
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Post by hairyscotsman on Nov 2, 2023 9:40:05 GMT -8
mmi16 asked over in the F1 News Items thread:
No, they didn't dig to bedrock. They had a different solution that worked great until scheduled maintenance was cancelled.
Here's the response I give on other sites when people ask about it ...
The clay is the underlying problem, but they did dig deep to install a soil mitigation solution that was very clever and worked just fine until the 2015 storms.
The bad soil was accounted for in the engineering design process. The problems started with how it was handled after design and construction. It is indeed sad and embarrassing. And Epstein won't even acknowledge the actual problem, trying to pass it off as just 'old asphalt'. There's much more to it than that. It's the bad soil + the weather + a human element, as it seems there always is. Prior to construction, the engineers had done extensive soil core sampling and knew about the expanding/contracting, shifting/heaving soil problems. They came up with a great plan and put an engineering solution in place to limit the issues. They dug down as much as 10-15 feet in places and laid an impermeable polymer barrier, then refilled it all with specific different layers of prescribed, imported road base aggregates, compacted that layer by layer, then paved on top of that in a very precise layering process with specialize paving equipment, supervised by an F1/MotoGP track paving specialist. Obviously, the track is built along the side of a hill. A drainage solution was designed to divert rain from the track down the hill - around and under the track and under the water barrier. This way, the engineers sought to create an isolated 'tube' on which the track would rest and which would be made more stable than the surrounding soil by controlling the water content inside it . They designed a robust drainage system which was a critical component of the system. That solution worked very well and kept the track very smooth until 2015, when poor/no maintenance led to failure of the drainage system that's a key component of the soil mitigation solution. I've been told by multiple people who worked on the design, the construction, and at COTA in different capacities that the scheduled maintenance on the drainage system that was prescribed by the engineers was canceled by Epstein to save money. Then when big rain events predictably occurred, the unmaintained drainage system was overwhelmed. Water is always going to find a way downhill, no matter what, so it ran across, under, and even through the now-damaged subsurface barrier ‘tube’. The water moving inside the tube weakened the track base, eroding the substrate and causing subsidence. That created bumps and cracks in the surface. You can see evidence of this during and even days after any significant rain at COTA, as water weeps up from the track base (where it’s not even supposed to be) and out through cracks and seams in the track surface (which aren't supposed to be there either). Now the drainage system needs to be repaired to help stabilize the track's substrate, but in short that's not happening, so the cheaper, superficial fixes (patchwork grinding and lower-grade repaving only portions of the track) only last a few months rather than years.
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Post by hairyscotsman on Nov 2, 2023 10:09:26 GMT -8
And yeah, it would be very, very expensive to properly repair. I'm told that nothing they do at this point will hold up for long until they repair the drainage system. I wonder how much money that 'cost-cutting' measure ended up costing them in the long run.
Then if they want to do it right, the way they did it before, they need to painstakingly rebuild the substrate, compacting it layer by layer with specialized aggregates, and resurface on top of that, layer by layer with very precise equipment and a grade variance of only a few mm per 100 feet of track, and using 3 specialized pavers running simultaneously to keep from having any seams.
Instead, they just do much cheaper patches with plain local equipment, materials, and supervision ... and it doesn't work. All it does is buy Epstein and COTA a little more time. Then when MotoGP or F1 complains loudly enough, he'll do the minimum they demand, to keep them coming back another year or two.
Having received more than $350 Million to date from the State of Texas taxpayer subsidy (MERP), you'd think COTA could afford to properly repair and resurface the track and represent us better on the world stage. COTA literally would not exist without that funding.
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Post by mikey on Nov 2, 2023 13:48:25 GMT -8
And yeah, it would be very, very expensive to properly repair. I'm told that nothing they do at this point will hold up for long until they repair the drainage system. I wonder how much money that 'cost-cutting' measure ended up costing them in the long run. Then if they want to do it right, the way they did it before, they need to painstakingly rebuild the substrate, compacting it layer by layer with specialized aggregates, and resurface on top of that, layer by layer with very precise equipment and a grade variance of only a few mm per 100 feet of track, and using 3 specialized pavers running simultaneously to keep from having any seams. Instead, they just do much cheaper patches with plain local equipment, materials, and supervision ... and it doesn't work. All it does is buy Epstein and COTA a little more time. Then when MotoGP or F1 complains loudly enough, he'll do the minimum they demand, to keep them coming back another year or two. Having received more than $350 Million to date from the State of Texas taxpayer subsidy (MERP), you'd think COTA could afford to properly repair and resurface the track and represent us better on the world stage. COTA literally would not exist without that funding. Sounds like as soon as F1 stops going there the thing will become an eye sore until it destroys itself into a place for cows or other animals to graze as they can handle uneven ground. 15 years later it wll hardly even be recognizable as a former F1 track and that's a shame!!
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Post by DanicaFan on Nov 3, 2023 3:05:04 GMT -8
So even the fuck-ups are bigger and better in Texas.
Seriously, I can't believe the state of Texas funds this embarrassment of a track.
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Post by hairyscotsman on Nov 3, 2023 10:34:45 GMT -8
So even the fuck-ups are bigger and better in Texas. Seriously, I can't believe the state of Texas funds this embarrassment of a track. It's amazing, isn't it? Gov. Abbott is the same guy who said when he was attorney general that there was no way at all to verify COTA's economic impact claims. Then he was elected governor and took control of the MERP subsidy program into his office to 'clean it up'. He then started rapidly increasing COTA's payouts. So by 'cleaning it up' I guess he meant 'making it less transpoarent and abusing it even more'. He held a ceremony at the Capitol with Epstein just before this year's USGP, assuring everyone that the USGP alone has an impact of more than $1 Billion a year, which is preposterous. I can only assume he gets a sizeable cut of the gubment money he's doling out to COTA.
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