In Naperville, Illinois a city and 12 local automotive dealers have come together to fund, design and construct a 7-acre Auto Test Track facility. It is believed to be the only one of its kind in the United States and provides a fun and safe way for dealership customers to test drive passenger cars, light trucks and sport utility vehicles in a controlled environment. Drivers can safely experience everyday road conditions rolling over asphalt, a railroad crossing, cobblestone surfaces, suburban driveway, a high bank test area, skid pad, and an SUV testing area with a hill climb and rough road sections.The facility will eventually serve as a weekend competitive track for car clubs with spectators, as well as a training facility for local Police and Fire Departments. With such a high profile in the community, the facility required an attractive, landscaped development complete with efficient parking and safe access that would be welcomed as a good neighbor to the citizens of Naperville.
The City of Naperville presented some exciting design challenges to A. Epstein and Sons International Inc., the lead design firm on the project. The city was especially concerned with the quality of light so luminaires with excellent light control were important. Standards for average and maximum footcandles (light levels) in each area of activity, maximum and average footcandles at property line, and an acceptable light loss factor were developed. Additionally a pole height of no more than 25’ was established.
Light trespass was restricted to a maximum of two footcandles at the property line. So luminaires with house side shield were specified. Full cut off luminaires were specified to minimize light pollution and glare. Illumination levels were set at 10 fc average maintained in the test area and 0.2 fc minimum with a 20:1 maximum to minimum uniformity ratio in parking areas.
To accomplish this, Epstein’s Siva K. Haran PE,LC, LEED AP, Principal Lighting Designer and Electrical Project Engineer for the track project selected Spaulding Lighting’s 1000 watt Proformer XL luminaire for the test track area and 400 watt versions for parking areas. Each was specified with a flat lens with Type IV distribution reflectors. Twenty twin mounted Proformer XL fixtures were used in the track area along with five single fixture units. The parking area was lit with six - single fixture 400 watt pole mounted luminaires.
Mr. Haran reported, "The City of Naperville’s Exterior Lighting Ordinance addressed issues such as light trespass, light pollution, skyglow and glare. Spaulding Lighting's “Proformer XL” series luminaires were selected because they provided excellent optical systems to resolve these issues.
For example, light pollution and sky glow were reduced by using full cutoff luminaires with glare minimized by selecting flat lens units. In the perimeter zones, light trespass was reduced using house-side shields. Finally, the flexibilty of using segmented
and rotatable optics in different arrangements provided exceptional light levels with good uniformity for better visibility on the test tracks while reducing the total number of luminaires and poles.
The results from the Spaulding fixtures exceeded requested performance levels. Average track illuminance was 10.52 fc with a maximum illuminance at property line of .06 fc. The entire project team and the City were happy with these results.”
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