[ F a s c i n a t i n g P r o j e c t s ]

Y a s M a r i n a C i r c u i t A b u D h a b i

E

Abu Dhabi

The Emirate of Abu Dhabi has around

2.5 million inhabitants of which

approximately 80% are immigrant

workers. The city of Abu Dhabi is by far

the largest city in the Emirate.

Abu Dhabi City is situated on

a 70 km² island in the mangrove belt,

which is connected to the mainland by

the Mussafa and al-Maqtaa Bridge.

The main island is surrounded

by some artificially extended or

newly dredged up islands which are

only partly developed at present.

CCenturies old Arab traditions collide

with modern Western culture in this

boom town. Only 4000 people, almost

exclusively Arabs, lived here in 1960.

A small village where people used to

earn a living primarily from pearl fish-

ing has become a vibrant city today

with close to 1 million inhabitants

from all over the world.

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The Arab motifs that decorate many

of the architecturally striking tall

buildings are characteristic of this

city on the Persian Gulf. At the same

time, there are many small shops

everywhere. They have in no way

been completely driven out by ultra-

modern shopping malls. New, gen-

erously sized roads cut through this

city on the peninsula which pro-

vides a view of the sea from almost

every point.

The Arab motifs that decorate many

A „Ferrari Park“ with its own museum and

theatre and also a dragster track, a driv-

ing school, go-kart tracks, dune tracks,

three golf courses, several 5 star hotels,

gigantic shopping centres, restaurants

and luxury properties are being built

alongside the race track on the 2500 ha

natural island of „Yas“.

New motor sport highlight: The Yas Marina Circuit

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Megaprojekt „YAS ISLAND“

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The Yas Marina Circuit is the first race track

worldwide where all stands are covered.

Not only up to 50,000 spectators but also teams

and media representatives can follow the fast cars

in their battle for victory from seats in the shade.

VIPs have the best view: they can sit on

top of the 60 m high „Sun Tower“

with a view of the whole track.

The design of the 5.5 km

track with a total of 20 bends

is extremely versatile. The layout

provides a mix of fast and slow bends.

A maximum speed of 320 km/h is possible

on the long straight sections.

The highlight is certainly the section

round the marina with the drive

through the hotel.

Legend:

Plenty of sun

Racing is booming in Asia and Arabia. This

is reason enough for building new race

tracks to high quality criteria to satisfy the

requirements of modern motor sport. An-

other ultra modern grand prix track was

completed in autumn 2009 after Malaysia,

China, Bahrain and Turkey.

The new track was built in accordance with

plans by the internationally renowned Ger-

man race track architect, Hermann Tilke,

and cuts through the centre of „Yas“ Island

and then over a high-speed section and a

stretch along the marina with a backdrop

which gives you „the feeling of being in Mo-

naco“ right in the middle of the desert. On

other sections there are numerous bends

providing plenty of excitement with over-

taking manoeuvres.

The new Grand Prix track

is part of a gigantic 40 billion dollar

project with the aim of establishing

Abu Dhabi as a holiday paradise.

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New highlight in the race calender:

TheYas Marina Circuit

Start/Finish

Main Grandstand

Pit-Building

Yas Marina Hotel

Sun-Tower

Yacht Club

Driving School Building

Dragster Track

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Compactors do basic work

An essential prerequisite for a perfect asphalt

surface course is a level and well compacted

roadbed. To get the quality right, the con-

struction companies in Abu Dhabi opted for

HAMM quality when creating the roadbed and

the courses of crushed stone.

The first HAMM rollers were deployed to com-

pact the roadbed right at the start of the

project. A formation level made of broken ma-

terial and sand with an impressive expanse of

1.2 million m² was created.

Then the team from Bickhardt Bau AG, gen-

eral contractors for road construction works,

processed around 2 million tonnes of bro-

ken stones into an unbound base course in

the next few months. The course levelled

by graders acquired the necessary stability

through the compacting strength of HAMM

compactors.

Perfect roadbed for dragsters

Dragster racing, a highly explosive mix of

speed, sport and show, is attracting more and

more fans into motor sport arenas all around

the globe. Two HP giants wait for the start-

ing signal in each case. Then they go from

nought to one hundred in less than one sec-

ond. And after a quarter of mile it comes to

an end. Whoever had the greater acceleration

and the better reaction capacity is the winner

of the duel.

In future, not only fans of classical racing will

get their money‘s worth in Abu Dhabi. The

hearts of dragster fans will also beat faster. An

almost seamless acceleration section on spe-

cially produced reinforced concrete has been

built on this peninsular in the Persian Gulf.

Large-volume engines with several thousand

HP can step up the pace here because truly

„hot“ sets of wheels can accelerate optimally

on the perfectly level concrete road surface.

There was no doubt: Bickhardt Bau used

HAMM VIO compactors to compact the forma-

tion level.

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Specialists continuously monitored asphalt

production in the mixing plant. The roller

drivers simultaneously compacted the high-

quality mixes. The HAMM rollers with their

excellent view of the drum edge came into

their own on the tight bends in particular.

The high-speed drives of the aerodynami-

cally optimised Formula 1 cars place maxi-

mum demands on the grip and the even-

ness of the asphalt surface. On the other

hand, tolerances for the special asphalt

paving were minimal. Therefore, there

were no compromises with the engineer-

ing. Bickhardt Bau chose the best: Vögele

finishers and HAMM rollers.

Seven new HD series tandem rollers, one

Compact Line tandem roller and one rubber-

wheeled roller were shipped from Germany

to the Persian Gulf in May 2008. Their

first job was to pave the base and binder

courses on the race track with escape areas,

paddock and emergency routes as well as all

access roads and parking areas. The teams

of machine operators from Germany, India

and Pakistan completed a 750,000 m² area

of asphalt from 210,000 tonnes of asphalt in

total in Abu Dhabi.

There was great excitement when the

asphalt surface course was paved at the

beginning of August. The work was carried

out at night because daytime temperatures

are around 50°C at that time of year. Three

Vögele finishers and seven HAMM rollers

went through their paces for five whole

nights under the race track floodlights.

Six to seven passes in „hot-on-hot“ paving

were sufficient for compacting and sealing

partly with oscillation, partly statically - until

the stringent quality requirements were

met. The asphalt specialists always placed

the transition points between each day‘s

sections in an acceleration zone. This avoids

cracks which could arise in the braking areas

at a later date due to enormous forces.

TeamworkMaschines from

the WIRTGEN Groupfor the requisite quality Teamwork

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Oscillation: faster,

better, more economical

„We opted for oscillation rollers here in

Abu Dhabi because of the better compac-

tion“, Project Manager, Frank Dittrich from

Bickhardt Bau, explained their engineering

selection. „We quickly achieve the required

degrees of compaction on the 20 m wide

race track and do not need so many ma-

chines.“

The asphalt packages on the modern

race track comprise top-quality building

materials in comparably thin courses 8 or 4

cm thick. HD 75 and HD 110 tandem rollers

ensured top quality and economic viability

with oscillation because they can also

compact thin courses dynamically contrary

to vibration rollers. A higher degree of

compaction is reached faster.

Regular, expert maintenance is essential for

overall success for such a mammoth project

with many machine hours. HAMM supports

customers in this respect through a dense

worldwide network of its own branches

and dealers. The Genavco service engineers

looked after the HD, GRW and Compact Line

rollers belonging to Bickhardt Bau in Abu

Dhabi. „We are very satisfied with HAMM

service here in the Arab Emirates“, Project

Manager, Frank Dittrich, summarised their

experience and added:

„The Genavco team helped us quickly and

reliably with specialist knowledge and

original spare parts during the entire time.“

We had our own mixing plant in Abu Dhabi

to produce the top secret special formulae

for base, binder and surface courses. To get

the quality right, a team of specialists from

Germany checked the mixes several times

before, during and after paving.

Geologist graduate, Jürgen Mika from

Labor Heinrich Hart GmbH, accompanied

the asphalt works in Abu Dhabi. Over 1000

test specimens from countless mix samples

were produced and examined in our own

laboratory on site during this time. ”We

had to first find a material mix to achieve

the required evenness of the binder and

surface courses. Roughness depth, PSV

value and bitumen properties were decisive

in this instance. The stability of the selected

material is also considerably greater during

rolling. This was particularly decisive for

compaction on tight bends with outward

camber in some cases“.

Quality check by asphalt experts

Majed Al-Qedrah, Manager at

Genavco: „Our team on its own is

now taking care of over 250 roll-

ers in Abu Dhabi. We provide a

complete service for everybody.

Of course, we also support the

teams from Germany on the race

track.“

Top Service in the Persian Gulf

QUALITYQUALITY

QUALITYQUALITY

QUALITYQUALITY

1 x Super 1800-1

2 x Super 1900-2

The team of Bickhardt Bau

Service

reliably with specialist knowledge and

original spare parts during the entire time.“ 1 x HD 12 VV

more than 10 GRW 15 and GRW 18 in the field

4 x HD O75V

1 x HD 75

2 x HD 110

Asphalt quality was continously monitored in the own laboratory

Ralf Schär und Frank Dittrich von Bickhardt Bau

Majed Al-Qedrah, Manager bei Genavco

HAMM AG

Hammstrasse 1

D-95643 Tirschenreuth

Tel +49 9631/ 80-0

Fax +49 9631/ 80-111

www.hamm.eu

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