Hyundai and Kia Proving Grounds
The Hyundai and Kia proving grounds in California City is an automotive test facility built on a large, remote desert site in the Mojave. Proving ground construction is grading and paving work held to tolerances that most civil construction never approaches.
The construction challenge
A high speed test track is a precision surface. The grading and paving tolerances required for a facility where vehicles operate at speed are far tighter than roadway construction standards, and the banking, transitions, and surface consistency have to be constructed and verified to specification. Achieving that across a facility measured in miles, on a site where the material is desert soil, is the central technical challenge.
Scale compounds it. Proving grounds cover very large areas, which means mass grading quantities are enormous and the earthwork has to balance across a site with limited import options. Survey control across a facility of this size is itself a substantial undertaking, because tolerance requirements that are achievable over a hundred feet become difficult over several miles.
The site is remote. California City is in the Mojave, far from concrete suppliers, aggregate sources, and the subcontractor pools of the Los Angeles basin. Mobilization cost, travel time, material haul distance, and thin local competition all change the pricing structure, and an estimate built on urban market assumptions would be materially wrong.
Desert conditions affect execution. Extreme summer heat constrains paving and concrete operations, wind affects both work and survey, and the productive season is shorter than a schedule built elsewhere would assume.
Outcome and takeaway
Remote, high tolerance projects require estimates built on the actual site: mobilization, supply distance, thin subcontractor competition, and the seasonal productivity that desert conditions permit.
See energy and utilities and San Bernardino County for how we approach remote work.
- Project
- Hyundai and Kia Proving Grounds
- Location
- California City, California
- Sector
- Industrial and Automotive
- Firm role
- Preconstruction and construction management services
- Licensure
- California A General Engineering Contractor #777345
- Further detail
- Additional project information is available on request. Contact us.
Scope elements
The categories of work this project type involves.
- Precision mass grading to test facility tolerances
- High speed track surface construction
- Survey control across a large site
- Paving and surface tolerance verification
- Site infrastructure, utilities, and access
- Drainage and desert storm water management
- Remote site mobilization and logistics
- Material sourcing and haul management
- Heat and seasonal productivity management
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Southern CaliforniaWorking on something like this
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