Hamm and Vögele machines build formula 1 circuit

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 com paction. 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 fi rm 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 fi ve 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 satisfi ed 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.“