Tornado in Erie, CO

[oldpotatoe]

Velodrome, almost done, killed yesterday.

[pbarry]

Drove by it on Friday. What a shame.

[oldpotatoe]

Drove by it on Friday. What a shame.

So when did it happen? I thought yesterday but Friday?

[MattTuck]

news story link?

literally, an under construction velodrome was hit by a tornado?

[pbarry]

Yesterday, Saturday, afternoon. I always check out the progress, and it's looked near completion for most of July.

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/ci_23788233/boulder-county-under-tornado-watch-until-10-p

[Bruce K]

Damn

At least no one was hurt

BK

[PJN]

I really questioned the structural design of the track seeing it built up (not to mention non-treated wood being laid on the ground and other sketchy ····) knowing the wind loading that happens around there.

If the re-build it with the same design this will happen again. Throwing good money after bad if the don't make this thing a big open "wing" waiting to be blown over.

[texbike]

We were on 25 yesterday when the storm moved through. The wind and rain was crazy!

That sucks about the velodrome. :(

Texbike

[nomdutilisateur]

oh no! Time to post my track bike in the classifieds.

[paulh]

oh no! Time to post my track bike in the classifieds.

It doesn't have a dent in the top tube does it?

[pbarry]

I really questioned the structural design of the track seeing it built up (not to mention non-treated wood being laid on the ground and other sketchy ····) knowing the wind loading that happens around there.

If the re-build it with the same design this will happen again. Throwing good money after bad if the don't make this thing a big open "wing" waiting to be blown over.

Yeah, me too. When the vertical studs on the periphery were painted with finish paint, I figured that there would be no skirt or sheathing/finish skin over the supports.

A velodrome is a pretty unique structure in most U.S. locales. City/County inspectors probably had no idea what they were looking at, let alone demanding more rigorous building techniques.

The concrete "bunker" under the infield was one of the more costly elements of the project. That and the west end of the track remain. Hoping they'll get a good structural engineer on the project. The insurance co. will demand it if they cover this.

[Louis]

Does anyone have a picture of what it (the velodrome) looked like before the tornado hit?

It doesn't have a dent in the top tube does it?

HA !

[pbarry]

This, from the Boulder Valley Velodrome site:

I usually use the “telephone machine” in order to communicate, but here goes: First of all, we are humbled by the outpouring of support we have received in the last 24 hours. Thank you all for your kind words. We spent Sunday cleaning the mud and water out of the clubhouse basement, the tunnel, and the infield storage facility. The water line on the walls was over 3 ft. high. In a couple of days, it will look like this storm never happened. We have a flood gate in our plans for the north tunnel, but it wasn’t installed yet, so the holding pond adjacent to our property deluged into the facility. Next time, that won’t happen.

The 30 meters of track that collapsed gave way only because the oval was not finished. A complete oval would have provided the structural integrity needed to hold up during a storm of Saturday’s magnitude. We also had about a dozen trusses leaning against the unfinished end of the track, and when the wind hit 100 mph, it all pushed over. Ergo, if the facility was finished, (and we were so close) we would have been riding today, instead of shoveling mud and planning to reassembled the damaged track. Again, thank you all for your thoughts and well wishes. We will overcome this setback, and accomplish our goal.