Kentucky Horse Park Outdoor Stadium–Lexington, KY
Project Owner: Commonwealth of Kentucky
General Contractor: Messer Construction, Total Project Cost: $25,000,000
Cost: $2,500,000
The Kentucky Horse Park is a testament to Kentucky’s rich equestrian tradition. The working horse farm and educational theme park is open to the public showcasing both common and rare horses from around the world. In 2006 the Kentucky Horse Park was selected to host the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, an Olympic level international competition. This event marked the first time these prestigious games were held outside of Europe and the first time the championships for all eight FEI disciplines were held at one location.
From an electrical contractor’s point-of-view, this job had everything. It had medium voltage work that involved all night shut-downs, a sophisticated switchgear package, a custom design light fixture package, 120 foot hi-mast Musco light poles and lights, a large site lighting package, integrated lighting control system, lightening protection, a detailed grounding system, a high tech fire alarm package, a custom built stainless steel communication power pedestal that was installed underground in the middle of the arena. It also had an underground fiber network system, Cat 6, voice data cabling and devices, the power wiring and communication cabling for a high definition jumbo tron, the coaxial cabling and installation of a CC TV system, power and communication for elevators and coordination of a sophisticated sound and audio-visual system.
The exterior grandstand lighting system consisted of decorative pendant luminaries with custom designed optical reflector systems utilizing energy efficient compact fluorescent lamps for instant on lighting control and multiple light level switching schemes. The fixture manufacturer worked closely with us to coordinate the exacting details of fixture location and varying mounting heights to achieve the desired foot-candle requirements for the project. A variety of fixtures were used as egress lighting and a mini emergency inverter system was employed for this application. Many details were considered for the location of the electrical conduits to minimize visibility to the custom painted finish to match all of the exposed hardware on the project. Custom exterior wall bracket luminaries were designed and manufactured to welcome patrons through the front gates of the grandstand. The fixtures were specifically designed to meet the egress needs as well as provide proper scale and fit precisely within the prefabricated stone work on the large facade.
Challenges during the project included a difficult winter with ice and snow storms, the discovery of 37 skeletons on an old burial site, and coordination of international material delivery. Through careful planning, long hours and dedicated teamwork, our team completed this project on-time and with zero lost-time accidents.
