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Overview: A Site to Behold!
These new amenities, the additional shade and rest areas, expanded food-service offerings, and better site navigation and transportation were designed to enhance your AirVenture "creature comfort" level.
As EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2010 approached, EAA staff and volunteers were making final preparations for the big event. EAA's grounds crew was busy with a new set of enhancements for the event. Included on that list are expanded indoor exhibit space, a new shower building in the North 40 campground, improved camping sites and more!
For visitors who were not on the site in 2009, changes were evident from the moment they arrived. Those driving in encountered a repositioned main gate, now located roughly 400 feet farther west of its previous site. You won't miss it — just look for the large aircraft propeller sculptures, designed courtesy of a donor specifically interested providing a visually compelling entryway.
The repositioning of the Main Gate accommodated the extension of the main aircraft display taxiway, "Celebration Way," which leads to ConocoPhillips Plaza, and the creation of the two new thoroughfares that branch out diagonally from the new main gate. One of those diagonals cuts its way to the northeast toward the Forums area. The other diagonal flows to the southeast to a point behind Hangar D, ending at the "Paul's Woods" neighborhood of Camp Scholler. These "V" thoroughfares overlay the site's otherwise north/south and east/west grid of pathways to make for a much more easily navigated site.
For example, under the previous site layout, the most efficient route to go from the Warbirds area to the Main Gate entailed a three-quarter-mile zig-zag through the grounds. That same trek now will be reduced to a one-quarter-mile straight shot.
The "V" roadways also help define the borders of a newly configured main exhibition area. The redesign allows for more and larger plots for exhibitors and several new food-service venues. Furthermore, more than 40 mature trees were transplanted and dozens of new trees were brought in to establish several shady green spaces where attendees can take a break.
Changes You Asked For
Restricted-vehicle zone - In response to considerable member and visitor feedback, a restricted-vehicles zone is also defined, in part, by the placement of the "V" roadways. In this area — which will include ConocoPhillips Plaza, the EAA Welcome Center, the main exhibit areas, and the indoor exhibit facilities — the number and types of vehicles allowed in high foot-traffic thoroughfares are significantly reduced. These vehicle restrictions create a more pleasant experience for pedestrians. Plus, modified tram routes reduce waiting times at each tram stop.
Shower/Flush Toilets - The four existing major campground shower facilities — Bunkhouse, West, Stits, and North 40 — have been renovated, with dozens of new, flush toilet facilities installed. These compliment the new North 40 shower building that opened in 2010, located midway between North 40 aircraft registration and the existing west shower building. Flush toilet facilities will also appear in strategic locations on the grounds. These are located near the exhibit hangars, the Forums Plaza, and Theater in the Woods, while additional indoor toilets are now available in the new addition to Exhibit Hangar C.
These new amenities, the additional shade and rest areas, expanded food-service offerings, and better site navigation and transportation were designed to enhance your AirVenture "creature comfort" level.
Changes You Can Expect to See
For the 2009 event, a dozen buildings were relocated; some additional facilities were constructed; several new thoroughfares were established; some vendor and event-content areas were moved. The good news is that most of the major special-interest "neighborhoods" and landmark areas — Warbirds, Homebuilts, Vintage/Showplanes, Ultralight/Lightplane, ConocoPhillips Plaza, the North 40, Camp Scholler, Forums and Workshops, and KidVenture — remain where they've been for the past several years.
Facilities and other program areas were moved and relocated in the interest of a better experience for attendees. For example, having determined that the majority of FlyMarket patrons were staying in the campground, the site redesign team moved the FlyMarket to a position adjacent to Camp Scholler. Similarly, the front gate's repositioning made room for the new thoroughfares and improved site layout.
Five 50-foot-tall wayfinding towers are now in strategic positions throughout the grounds to point the way to various "neighborhoods" and provide additional information, including maps and copies of AirVenture's daily newspaper, AirVenture Today, which now provides more information to help you plan your AirVenture experience. To help you find your way, the volunteer Protect Our Planes corps broadened its efforts to include providing directions and guidance throughout the site.
Behind/Under the Scene
Not all of AirVenture's site upgrades will be visible. Some of the most dramatic changes are quite literally out of sight. A state-of-the-art new storm water treatment and drainage system entailed burying approximately 2,000 truckloads of clear stone, carefully arranged in a geoblock/geogrid configuration to absorb and treat runoff water. This underground reservoir naturally drains into the groundwater system, eventually making its way to Lake Winnebago. This environmentally friendly approach, combined with an equally "green" recycled and porous asphalt covering roads and pathways, will help to move water off of thoroughfares and grounds in the event of wet weather.
Newly installed utilities are similarly invisible yet essential to the site-enhancement project. Buried electrical lines have been reconfigured throughout the site to match with the new exhibit layout. Likewise, the sites of the newly upgraded shower and flush-toilet facilities in the campgrounds are supported by new underground electricity, water, and drainage systems.
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