Sprache
- English
- Deutsch
In August 2009, daytime temperatures of almost 50°C were the norm. For this reason, the wearing course was paved at nighttime when the temperature dropped to a comparatively „cool“ 30°C. The extremely bright floodlights provided for unique visibility conditions on the job site.
Around Yas Island, Arab firms built numerous access roads leading to the vast grounds during the course of 2009. Hamm rollers and Vögele pavers were always on the scene!
Rolf Weibel (right), Vögele Area Sales Manager for the Middle East, visited the crew of Bickhardt Bau on the job site in spring. At that time, the machines from the Wirtgen Group were installing the base and binder courses on the gigantic parking areas and connecting roads.
Local customer support: Thomas Schaumberger, Area Sales Manager from Hamm, also maintained extremely close contacts with his customers in Abu Dhabi.
December 2009
Tight bends, high-speed straights, 50,000 covered spectator seats and sensational routing through the middle of a luxury hotel and along the brand new marina. These are just some of the highlights of the fascinating „Yas Marina Circuit“ in Abu Dhabi. The circuit celebrated its Formula 1 debut on 1 November to the enthusiasm of motorsport fans around the world. The builder-owners insisted on quality in all work sections – especially when it came to asphalt paving and compaction. So it was clearly a case for Vögele pavers and Hamm rollers.
The highly spectacular new circuit is part of the 40 billion dollar „Yas Island“ project. A huge leisure paradise covering 2,500 hectares has been created on „Yas Island“ at the north of Abu Dhabi. The heart of the project is the Formula 1 circuit, designed by German race track architect Hermann Tilke. The 5.55 km circuit promises exciting races as it demands a great deal of driving skill and the utmost concentration, with such challenges as the outwards sloping bends. German construction firm Bickhardt Bau AG was awarded the contract to pave the gravel and asphalt courses on the circuit and entire peripheral area. Between autumn 2008 and August 2009, they installed 210,000 tonnes of asphalt over a total surface area of 750,000 m², using five Super 1900-2 pavers from Vögele and seven HD Series asphalt rollers, one CompactLine HD 12 and a rubber-tyred roller from Hamm. No question: the machines from the Wirtgen Group did their jobs splendidly.
The combination of Vögele high-compaction screeds and Hamm tandem oscillating rollers produced perfect compaction results when installing the base and binder courses. Particularly stringent requirements were placed on the precision of the circuit: the finished wearing course had to display a surface accuracy of 2 mm measured over a longitudinal distance of 4 m. „Thanks to the grade and slope control technology from the Wirtgen Group, such as the Big-Multiplex-Ski and Niveltronic system, we were well able to achieve this challenging goal,“ explains Horst Hennighausen, Paving Manager, who had already supervised the asphalt paving of the circuits in Bahrain and Shanghai.
The machines used in such a gargantuan project naturally clock up the hours. Regular, professional maintenance is thus essential to the overall success of the project. The Wirtgen Group assists its clients in this task by means of a dense network of Wirtgen subsidiaries and authorized dealerships around the world. In Abu Dhabi, the service technicians of Genavco took care of the rollers and pavers of Bickhardt Bau. „We‘re extremely satisfied with the service of the Wirtgen Group in the United Arab Emirates,“ says Project Manager F. Dittrich in summing up his experiences, going on to add that „The team from Genavco reliably supported us the whole time with expertise and original spare parts.“
For further information, please contact:
Wirtgen Group
Claudia Fernus
Reinhard-Wirtgen-Strasse 2
53578 Windhagen
Germany
Phone: +49 2645 / 131-744
Fax: +49 2645 / 131-499
e-Mail: presse@wirtgen.de
