Skip to main content

Eurovia races against the clock for London’s Race of Champions

Fast-track construction has taken on a new meaning following the successful staging of the Race of Champions in London’s Olympic Stadium. The knockout tournament for the world’s best drivers – won by Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel – required a super-fast construction and dismantling of a safe, high-speed circuit within the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Stadium. Eurovia UK had just four weeks to design the track, complete trials and mobilise for the project following the contract award. The circuit was co
June 17, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
And the winner is Eurovia UK
Fast-track construction has taken on a new meaning following the successful staging of the Race of Champions in London’s Olympic Stadium.

The knockout tournament for the world’s best drivers – won by Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel – required a super-fast construction and dismantling of a safe, high-speed circuit within the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Stadium. 3281 Eurovia UK had just four weeks to design the track, complete trials and mobilise for the project following the contract award.

The circuit was constructed in one week, allowing organisers three days for driving practice ahead of the event last November. Afterwards, the project team had 36 hours to remove the track, but accomplished this in just 25 hours.

Eurovia contracting business manager Dave Boswell said tight control of logistics was essential, given the complexity of the project and constraints on Eurovia’s access to the stadium.

Working in conjunction with the Race of Champions team, the track was designed by technical consultancy 2374 Jean Lefebvre (UK). It was constructed with recycled road planings laid on aluminium trackway panels to protect the pitch’s underground heating. The 150mm base layer was then overlaid with SMA binder and a thin surface course paved in Echelon.

Sims Milling & Eurovia Roadstone processed the materials after laying trials at its Bull Lodge quarry in Essex. Conventional wheeled, tracked and midi-pavers were used to lay different grades of planings. Sims Milling also demonstrated that the material could be removed by cold milling without damaging the aluminium plates.

Around 3,000tonnes of road planings and 1,800tonnes of asphalt were used in the construction of the 8,000m2 circuit. It required 1,000 plates provided by Davis Trackway, which played a similar role for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Key Heathrow Airport link road undergoes repair
    October 1, 2014
    Hounslow Highways, working together with other Eurovia UK divisions including Surfacing, Contracting, Specialist Treatments and Euromark, has completed road reconstruction works on Stanwell Road West - one of the London Borough of Hounslow’s main link roads to Heathrow Airport. A large number of heavy goods vehicles and buses using the 80km/h dual carriageway results in significant loading on the road. Initial plans were to give Stanwell Road West complete reconstruction from the foundation level upwards
  • New M90 surfacing in the UK gain praise
    January 8, 2013
    Early evaluation of surfacing work on the M90 at Rosyth – the first major application of Scotland’s new TS2010 specification – has earned positive praise. Transport Scotland’s determination to obtain pavement that is durable, long lasting and safe (especially in early life) is clearly apparent on the M90 just north of the Forth Road Bridge. Here surfacing has been carried out this spring to TS2010, a tough new specification designed to ensure thin surfacing pavements that work. And the initial prognosis is
  • Major advances in asphalt paving technology
    February 9, 2012
    Using the latest paving technology has allowed contractors to carry out difficult projects Contractors in Germany and Italy have been able to carry out very difficult asphalt paving applications, using the latest machines from Vögele and Volvo Construction Equipment respectively. In both instances these projects benefited greatly from the use of the latest generation equipment and it is debatable as to whether such high quality results could have been achieved with older machines.
  • Circuit of the Americas Formula for F1 success
    April 4, 2013
    In November 2012, the new Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, hosted the first ever Formula 1 US Grand Prix on a purpose-built track. But, as Jeff Winke and Guy Woodford report, the construction of COTA was just as demanding as competing in an F1 race itself For COTA construction contractor Austin Bridge & Road, L.P., nothing was more vital to the successful building of the 5.5km F1 track than meeting the strict criteria for its asphalt-paved surface. “The amount of stress this pavement will un