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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 2009 rapidly approaches, EAA staff and volunteers are making final preparations for the big event. EAA's grounds crew is wrapping up work on this year's AirVenture site changes, and cleaning and readying the site for your arrival. Consequently, preparations are at a point where a good "picture" of the site changes and improvements you can expect to see is available. See a bird's eye look at many of these changes.
Changes will be evident from the moment you arrive. Those driving in will encounter 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. For those flying in, the changes will be less conspicuous, although two new diagonal roadways, arranged in a “V” with their juncture at the Main Gate, will be easily visible from the air.
The repositioning of the Main Gate accommodated the extension of the main aircraft display taxiway, "Celebration Way," which leads to AeroShell Square, 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. This year, that same trek will be reduced to a one-quarter-mile straight shot.
The "V" roadways will also help define the borders of a newly configured main exhibition area. The redesign will allow 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
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 Aeroshell Square, 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 will be significantly reduced. These vehicle restrictions will create a more pleasant experience for pedestrians. Plus, modified tram routes will reduce waiting times at each tram stop.
As you explore the new layout and configuration of the grounds, we hope you will be more comfortable and relaxed. The four major campground shower facilities — Bunkhouse, West, Stits, and North Forty — have been renovated, with dozens of new, flush toilet facilities installed. Some additional flush toilet facilities will also appear in strategic locations on the grounds. These will be located near the exhibit hangars, the Forums Plaza, and Theater in the Woods.
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
Certainly, there's considerable change in store for return attendees: a dozen buildings have new locations; some additional facilities have been constructed; several new thoroughfares have been established; some vendor and event-content areas have been moved. The good news is that most of the major special-interest "neighborhoods" and landmark areas — Warbirds, Homebuilts, Vintage/Showplanes, Ultralight/Lightplane, AeroShell Square, the North Forty, Camp Scholler, Forums and Workshops, and KidVenture — remain where they've been for the past several years.
Facilities and other program areas that have been moved were 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 will be located 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 this year will provide more information to help you plan your AirVenture experience. To help you find your way, the volunteer Protect Our Planes corps will broaden its efforts this year to include providing directions and guidance throughout the site. Some of these volunteers will be stationed at the wayfinding towers and others will roam the grounds.
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.
This year's AirVenture will showcase only the first phase of a 10-year program of site enhancements. Work on the next phase will begin soon after the final aircraft departs AirVenture 2009.
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