Permanent Lights Construction at Churchill Begins This Week

The construction project at Churchill Downs that will bring permanent lighting to the track starts tomorrow. Track officials announced earlier this month that they had awarded the contract to Musco Lighting, and will host six night racing dates in 2010.Musco Vice-President Jeff Rogers says his company paid special attention the historic nature of the track when designing the light setup.“This facility is iconic in nature," says Rogers. "We want to make sure the lighting does its job, it lights the track in order to have a spectacular event, but it doesn’t become something that’s an annoyance the other 365 days of the year.”Musco provided the temporary lighting for the test-runs of night racing at Churchill earlier this year. It also has installed permanent lights at several college and NFL stadiums, as well as the Olympics, and dozens of other horse racing tracks throughout the world.The Churchill Downs project is set for completion before the spring meet begins in April. The cost is more than three million dollars.