Blast1,

How did it go? I only saw a brief little thing on the news and that was about it. Loved to hear about it.

James

Generally speaking whenever you have a grandstand or an arena, the engineers have to minimize the amount of obstructed view seating. In order to accomodate that they rely structurally on cantilevering. Cantilevered structures are tough to wreck because of the failure mode of the structure. Using explosives to sever the columns is the same basic principle as using a torch with the difference being that the explosives are detonated remotely so it is inherently much safer.
I recently looked at a grandstand that had all the typical columns supprting the seating but the roof is held up by suspension cables attached to 4 super columns.
Working at racetracks have a bunch of unique problems. Usually the stable's are nearby and you can't upset the billion $$ worth of horses. You can just imagine the lawsuits. Every owner with a horse destined for the glue factory will all of a sudden say they had the next Seabiscuit but because they were traumitized by the noise he can never run again.
AED has a challenge on this particular project because it is in close proximity to a very busy casino/ slots parlor. The place is open (and is usually full) 21 hours per day.

I am going to be in Charlestown that weekend for a SCCA race at Sumitt Point. The car track is all of 10 minutes from the horse track so I will pop in to watch it. Make sure you make your hotel reservations. Race fans usually book up all the hotel rooms in the area.
BTW, that is a nice project. I looked at it for 2 different companies. It has been going back and forth for about 5 years of so.