Doosan and Bobcat Machines Build Track for BMX World Championships in Birmingham in the UK

Doosan Infracore Construction Equipment is sponsoring the 2012 UCI BMX World Championships being held at the National Indoor Arena (NIA) in Birmingham in the UK from 24-27 May 2012. As part of the sponsorship package, Doosan has supplied a fleet of Doosan and Bobcat machines to build the temporary track in the NIA for the Championship races.

Paul Rowlands, Marketing Manager at British Cycling, said: "We are delighted to be working in partnership with Doosan on this year's BMX World Championships, the last major event in the UK before the Olympics. The machinery supplied by Doosan is integral to the building of the track for the races and will be working flat out in the week before the Championships."

The fleet of equipment from Doosan includes Doosan DL200 and DL250 wheel loaders, a Bobcat T190 compact tracked loader, Bobcat E45 and E80 compact excavators and the new Bobcat TL470 telehandler.

The machines are being used by the contractors, surfacing specialists, P. Phillips & Sons, based at Bridgwater in Somerset and BMX track builders, Clark & Kent Contractors from Market Drayton in Shropshire. The contractors are working on behalf of the partnership organising the event, comprising British Cycling, Birmingham City Council and UK Sport.

Measuring 310 m in length, the track incorporates 8 m and 5 m starting ramps to accommodate the different classes of BMX rider taking part. To lower the weight on the floor, the track has an underbase of layers of wood pallets and plastic pipes which create voids which are then overlaid with Terram membrane. This is then covered using the Doosan wheel loaders with a limestone dust mixture which is pushed and moulded by the Bobcat compact excavators to form the shapes required on the course.

Event Manager, Phil Heselwood, who was responsible for the scheme for building the track, said: "The Doosan wheel loaders and Bobcat telehandler have been very important in the first stages of the build as we have so much material to move in the early phases.

"In track building, the number of jumps, berms, along with their size, determines how much dirt will be needed. We think that we'll use approximately 3500 tonne of limestone dust for the track and the excavators from Bobcat are ideal for this application owing to their manoeuvrability in these conditions and their ability to compact the dust surfacing into the shapes we want and to create the many undulations on the course."

For the berms at each end of the track, Pete Phillips and his team at P. Phillips & Sons use their expertise to carefully lay an asphalt covering on the tight bends. Among the equipment being used by the company is a Bobcat S160 skid-steer loader purchased from Bridgwater-based Kellands (Plant Sales) Ltd, the Authorised Doosan and Bobcat dealer for the whole of South West England, covering the counties of Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall, North Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol and Gloucestershire.