The F1 Grand Prix in Las Vegas presents a variety of challenges. Planning, engineering, construction, coordination, execution, and tear-down all take place each year. The majority of the work required to produce such a flawless event takes place above ground. Streets that normally host tourists driving The Strip and locals making their way to and from work are transformed into a closed-loop road course with vehicles traveling at hard to imagine speeds. But what about beneath the surface of the track?

Lying underground beneath the speeding cars above is a network of electric conduits and vaults with energized cables that keep the Vegas lights burning bright. In a normal day, accessing these vaults can be difficult, but not so difficult that it’s regarded as anything other than routine. During F1 however, no such access is available. With access points secured and construction occurring above ground, the electric cables and terminations remain below ground working as usual… until they stop working as usual.

A 12,470-volt primary distribution system is commonly used throughout the Las Vegas area. When failure occurs at that voltage, damage can be significant. A failed splice in an underground vault leads to a number of issues:

• The immediate result is a power outage somewhere in the system

  • It’s fairly easy to identify who is affected by the outage, but it can be more challenging to identify the exact source of the outage

  • Until the source of the outage is identified, or at least isolated, power cannot be restored

• Phase to ground and phase to phase faults create a momentary superheated atmosphere within the vault

  • That sudden superheating creates a pressurized environment

  • Secured lids would serve as a seal until pressure is relieved in some manner

    • Through the conduit system

    • By breaking the weld and forcing the lid open

    • Or heaving the road surface upward

  • If there is any sort of flammable gas intrusion into the underground vault network, damage could be far worse

As long as the failure could be isolated and customers restored, repairs could be delayed until the race is complete. That is, as long as the more serious scenarios don’t play out.

A power outage on the Las Vegas Strip during such an event would have immediate and visible impact. The race may proceed, but it would definitely be delayed. If there is an upheave of the road surface, that would likely be enough to stop the race until the roadway could be repaired. And nobody wants to even think about any ignition of intrusive gases, but when planning for such an event where access is restricted and consequences are high, all scenarios should be considered.

While the physical failure occurs below ground, the consequences are realized immediately above it.