The Yas Island experience

A Ferrari theme park, an F1 circuit, marinas and plush hotels – the Yas Island development is set to become the ultimate tourist destination in the UAE. Features Editor, Shikha Mishra goes on site to see how this US $40 million development is progressing.

Flying into Abu Dhabi? Look out of the window and you will spot the 10,000m² bright red roof of the Ferrari theme park, which is under construction on Yas Island.

Yas Island stretches across 6.5km in length and breadth and is located just opposite Abu Dhabi International airport.

There is still a lot of work to be done - the 10,000m² of roof which is complete is just a part of the 205,000m² of total roof area.

But Felix Warny, project director of Ferrari Experience, Yas Island, Six Construct, is confident that the project will meet its completion deadline.

"The building will be closed by November 1, 2009. The roof and the façade will be finished by that time. But inside the building in terms of finishes, work will still be going on," says Warny.

The Ferrari theme park will be the first of its kind and will feature the fastest roller-coaster in the world. Apart from other rides, attractions and shops, there will also be three hotels in the surrounding area.

Even though the main building will be closed by November this year, it will take time to open to the public.

"It is a milestone here to create something of this size. It is bigger than the Pentagon. There are three extensions of the main building. The Formula One race track is going to be outside the building," says Warny.

Nine-thousand tonnes of steel have gone into constructing the roof alone, with 28 cranes, 30 mobile cranes and 22 cherry pickers working around the clock on site.

The space frame of the theme park has been assembled piece by piece - it is made up of 42,000 nodes and 180,000 elements.

"One hundred and ninety towers are currently holding up the structure and after it is complete the towers will be removed and the structure will be held up by the central cylindrical column and the space frame," says Warny.

About 600 containers of insulation are coming from Germany for the roof.

"The total value of the civil works are about US $176.9 million (AED650 million), the steel structure is valued at $115.9 million and erection of the steel structure, the façade and the roof comes up to $193.3 million," says Warny.

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