The blue track in Berlin has a little sister in Jena
The track is nearly identical to the one in use at the Olympia stadium in Berlin and has the same intensive blue colour. It was on this track in Berlin that the star sprinter Usain Bolt ran his two world records in 2009. The grey secondary areas in Jena are also identical with the Berlin model. The inauguration celebrations took place at the start of October.
The construction team from the community-owned company “Kommunale Immobilien Jena“ as well as the general contractor, the Strabag Sportstättenbau GmbH, left nothing to chance during construction of the new synthetic track. Already during installation of the new substrate layer, which was laid using 550 tons of asphalt, great care was taken in maintaining an 0.8 percent base slope from the outside to the inside. This is important so that water cannot collect on the track. Moisture and frost were the main contributing factors which resulted in the old track surface - a 100% prefabricated track installed by an Italian competitor of BSW – becoming brittle and creating a high risk of injury for athletes. The new Regupol track is made up of wide elastic strips prepared in the factory and then installed by bonding them onto the asphalt substrate. A seamless surface made of liquid polyurethane with scattered EPDM granulate, is then applied on top of the elastic strips. The advantage of this installation method is that the prepared basic strips have the same physical properties throughout their whole area as the manufacture is subject to stringent factory testing. The surface layer covers the single strips and bonds them irreversibly together. This results in a completely seamless surface. A total of 7000 m² of synthetic surfacing was laid in the Ernst-Abbe-Sports Field. Eight running tracks, each 400 m long, as well as a field throwing pitch, make up the new sports stadium. Athletes in Jena now have the identical training conditions at their disposal as Usain Bolt in Jamaica as his training club is also equipped with the same Regupol track and, at the explicit request of Usain Bolt, in the same colour blue.
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