#PROJECT: YAS ISLAND

[Parisian Girl]

Formula One track will be ready for race day - developer



by Alex Delmar-Morgan on Sunday, 19 April 2009

Aldar CEO John Bullough issued a strong denial on Sunday that the Formula One race track on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island would be delayed.

Aldar is the master developer on the $40bn Yas Island Project and is building the Yas Marina circuit for the first ever Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that takes place on Nov. 1.

The island will also feature a Ferrari Theme Park, golf courses and a string of luxury hotels.

“By Nov 1 when you go to Yas Island, you will see seven hotels, a Formula One race circuit, with a Formula One race happening on it, a lynx golf course, a Ferrari Theme Park, and a marina,” Bullough said.

He added that the marina was being flooded on May 2.

Bullough was responding to mounting speculation in recent weeks that the circuit will not be ready for the race in November.

At the end of March, the Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management Company (ADMM), the group managing the Formula One race, issued a statement saying construction was ‘on track’ and there were ‘no concerns regarding delivery deadlines.’

Aldar, the largest developer by market value in Abu Dhabi, owns a 40 percent stake in ADMM.

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/55309...y---developer-

[Shad]

Originally Posted by Adam2707

13/03/2009

Could u tell me how to get this sort of images from DigitalGlobe ??

[Adam2707]

Originally Posted by Shad

Could u tell me how to get this sort of images from DigitalGlobe ??

Firstly go on to digitalglobe.com, then you will need to go onto Satellite Imagery (there should be a tab called "coverage" about half way down the main page, click on that then "Satellite Imagery"). The rest is explained by Hollie Maea on his Profile


---------------------------

Some images from Cityscape
Credit goes to Imre

[Parisian Girl]

40,000 winning race against time



Roland Hughes
* Last Updated: April 21. 2009 12:08AM UAE / April 20. 2009 8:08PM GMT

ABU DHABI // The brightly coloured roof of the enormous building dominating Yas Island gives a clear indication of what will soon lie inside.

It is not just red. It is Ferrari red.

Workers have already started placing giant tiles to create a splash of yellow and black in the form of Ferrari’s prancing horse – one of the world’s most widely recognised motifs – in the sea of red. Underneath will be Ferrari World, which, at 200,000 square metres, is planned as the world’s largest indoor theme park.

Passengers on aircraft taking off from the international airport nearby might suppose that the building, a Yshaped behemoth, is nearing completion.

It will certainly appear so from the outside come Nov 1, when the adjoining Yas Marina Circuit stages its first Formula One Grand Prix.

But the attraction will still be off-limits to the public during the race weekend, and will open its doors in 2010.

The circuit itself is far closer to being finished.

Steve Worrell, the director of the Yas Island project for Aldar, the developer, said work was about 70 per cent complete, both on the circuit as a whole and on the track itself.

“The scaffolding is coming down, the paving is being done, the tents [covering the seating] are going up on the grandstands.

“We are at a real crunch period now. We are just about at our peak workforce, with just over 40,000 people, and everybody is working flat-out. We have really picked up the pace of the project.”

The track would be finished by the end of July, Mr Worrell said. Nearly three-quarters had been laid, including most of the crucial start-finish straight.

The summer heat would not be a problem.

“In fact, if you were working in a colder climate, you would be worried about the asphalt cooling off before you have had a chance to place it,” he said.

“Here, you do not have to worry about that.”

He insisted the project would be finished on time, scotching rumours in the Canadian press last month that Montreal was ready to replace Abu Dhabi in the race calendar because of supposed delays on Yas Island.

“We have a camp with 40,000 people in it. It has been an amazing logistical exercise to get all of those parts moving in the same direction. The contractors are doing a fantastic job.

“Yes, OK, we have had problems, no doubt about that – like any other project. But we are very positive, with all our partners.”

With the race to be held six months from next week, most of the structural work around the circuit is finished, windows are being installed, interiors fitted out and trees planted.

Many suites and bedrooms in the attraction’s seven hotels, including the five-star Yas Marina Hotel, the centrepiece of the circuit, are nearly ready. While a number of hotels in the city centre are sold out for the race weekend, it is not yet possible to book any of the 2,300 rooms at the circuit hotels.

Mr Worrell said it was not known when they would be made available.

In mid-May, work on flooding the marina will begin. By July, the country’s first links golf course will open and the track will be finished.

In September, the first of the hotels is due to open.

All that will remain then is for the drivers to play their part.

rhughes@thenational.ae

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20.../1119/NATIONAL

[Parisian Girl]

Video: Checking in on Yas Island http://www.thenational.ae/article/20.../1318/NATIONAL

[Imre]

Cityscape Abu Dhabi

[Parisian Girl]

Grand Prix rooms on sale next week


The Yas Marina Hotel that will straddle the Grand Prix circuit. Courtesy Aldar

Roland Hughes and Jen Gerson
* Last Updated: April 22. 2009 12:55AM UAE / April 21. 2009 8:55PM GMT

ABU DHABI // Hotel rooms within walking distance of the new Formula One circuit will become available to the public from the middle of next week.

Seven hotels with a total of about 2,300 rooms are being built on Yas Island for the inaugural Grand Prix on Nov 1.

Race tickets went on sale a month ago and some hotels in the city centre have already started to sell out, but fans have so far been unable to book rooms at any of the new hotels next to the Yas Marina Circuit. Many will, however, be available to book from May 1.

The centrepiece of the circuit is the five-star Yas Marina Hotel, which will straddle the track. Like the Burj al Arab in Dubai, access to the hotel will be restricted, with visitors arriving over a bridge.

The hotel will be cloaked in a shell designed to resemble a fishing net and able to change colour at night.

The other six hotels to open on Yas Island before the race weekend, all gathered in a plaza, include two with five-stars, the Crowne Plaza and Radisson SAS, two with four, the Rotana and Staybridge Suites, and two with three, the Park Inn and Centro by Rotana.

Adrian Deegan, the area director of sales for the Rotana chain, said that by May 1 the company would be offering rooms through its own website as well as through such sites as www.expedia.com and www.bookings.com. In the meantime, all of the hotels on the island had been reserved by Aldar, the developer, and Etihad Airways, the sponsor, as they decided how many rooms they would need to accommodate VIP guests and delegations.

“What they want is still a little bit in the dark.”

Mr Deegan said he expected Rotana’s four-star hotel to charge approximately Dh2,650 (US$720) per night during the race. Its budget Centro hotel would charge about Dh1,500.

Julie Deighton, a spokeswoman for the Radisson SAS, said: “The rooms aren’t available yet. It has yet to be decided when they will go on sale and at what price rate they will be.”

Meanwhile, the director of sales for hotels to be run by the InterContinental Group, including the Staybridge Suites and the Crowne Plaza, said information about pricing and availability was likely to be released within the next month.

The capital has suffered from a shortage of hotel rooms in the past few years. The Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority says it has plans to build 25,000 hotel rooms by 2012, almost doubling the current stock of about 13,000.

In a recent interview, Lawrence Franklin, the director of strategy and policy for the ADTA, said the authority was expecting between 3,000 and 5,000 rooms to be built in time for the F1 race.

Steve Worrell, the Yas Island project director for Aldar, the developer, said “Inside the buildings and hotels, the rooms and suites are well advanced. The carpets, the paint, the doors and the finishing works are well advanced.

“The biggest push now will be all the reception areas, and particularly the kitchen and restaurant areas. Those are the areas the operators want to get first so they can train the staff and practise operating the hotels.

“There are discussions going on now with all the operators. All of them are on board now. The arrangements about booking are happening now. The soft opening of the hotels will probably be in late September.”

On Abu Dhabi island itself, hotels not taking any more bookings for race weekend include the Emirates Palace, Hilton Corniche, Sheraton Corniche, Royal Meridien and Novotel.

A number of F1 teams, including McLaren and Brawn GP, are known to have block-booked rooms in some of those hotels. Each of the 10 teams participating in the race weekend is expected to bring between 200 and 250 staff to Abu Dhabi, immediately accounting for between one in six and one in seven of the capital’s hotel rooms.

A further 50,000 people will attend each of the three days of competition, although the proportion of those people who will be travelling from abroad and requiring hotel rooms is not known. A further 600 journalists are expected to attend the race.

So far, the highest rates announced for the grand prix weekend are at the Al Raha Beach hotel, 15 minutes from the circuit. Rooms are still available there, although at Dh4,640 a night after tax, they risk being prohibitively expensive for most fans.

rhughes@thenational.ae

jgerson@thenational.ae

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20...704219936/1040

[BinDubai]

astonishing

[aviduser]

Sorry in that picture above is Ras Island directly in the approach path of the airport ?

Stunning looking buildings.

[Des]

Is it me or is that whole project right underneath the approach to Abu Dhabi Airport? This would result in quite some noise complaints from the new owners of properties on Yas Island.

[Des]

Originally Posted by aviduser

Sorry in that picture above is Ras Island directly in the approach path of the airport ?

Stunning looking buildings.

Lol didn't read your post, but I was thinking the same

[Des]

Originally Posted by Parisian Girl

Grand Prix rooms on sale next week

Adrian Deegan, the area director of sales for the Rotana chain, said that by May 1 the company would be offering rooms through its own website as well as through such sites as www.expedia.com and www.bookings.com. In the meantime, all of the hotels on the island had been reserved by Aldar, the developer, and Etihad Airways, the sponsor, as they decided how many rooms they would need to accommodate VIP guests and delegations.

I think they mean Booking.com

[aviduser]

I guess it is then, and It's really close, I can see them avoiding the area on climb out but there is no way to avoid it on approach. Investing in a high rise in that area could be noisy OR will they share the new Dubai Airport ?

[flares]

Originally Posted by Des

I think they mean Booking.com

no internetbookings.com bestbookingsontheinternetforbookings

p.s. you can stay in my luxuriously appointed 2* spare room just fifteen minutes from the track from 5,000 per night. I'll throw in some breakfast cereal too.

[Parisian Girl]

http://www.constructionweekonline.co...d_development/

Old render, but still good..

[Parisian Girl]

Staff walk out of Dubai Formula One job

7 May, 2009

By Roxane McMeeken

Developer insists row over payment will not delay Yas Marina circuit, which is due to make its F1 debut in November

A row has erupted between contractors working on Abu Dhabi’s Formula One track after staff at one firm claim not to have been paid their full salaries. The F1 track on Yas Island, being developed by Aldar, is due to open in November.

Dubai-based project manager and fit out firm Hamilton International is understood to have fallen out with UAE construction consultants Odyssey Development Consulting after 12 of its staff walked off the job. ODC was advising Hamilton on the fit out of the F1 track including the grandstand, pit and team buildings. Hamilton were sub-contracted by construction firm Cebarco WCT, who are building the circuit.

According to Arabian.Business.com some of ODC staff walked off the job after not receiving full pay from their employer for several months. It is understood that Hamilton is now employing ODC’s managing director Garth Martin as a consultant, but no other staff connected with ODC. It is unclear whether the situation will delay the handover of the project.

There has been intense media speculation over whether the F1 track, called the Yas Marina circuit, will be ready for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in November. In March, the Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management (ADMM) put out a statement strenuously denying reports that there were was any delay to the track. Aldar, the master developer of Yas Island, has also insisted the F1 project will be completed on time.

http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?...de=3139981&c=3

[Parisian Girl]

Anyone know if the marina has been flooded yet?

[Imre]

09/May/2009

Yas Island , Abu Dhabi

[Shad]

Originally Posted by Parisian Girl

Anyone know if the marina has been flooded yet?

read post 101

[docc]

How will this ever be ready by November?!?!