The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a motor racing circuit in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the venue for the FIA Formula One Canadian Grand Prix.
It has previously hosted the FIA World Sportscar Championship, the Champ Car World Series, the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, the NASCARXfinity Series and the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series.
Originally named the Île Notre-Dame Circuit, the circuit was built and finished in 1978. In what has proven to be the venue’s main event over the decades, the FIA Formula One Canadian Grand Prix had been part of the Formula One World Championship for 10 years, and it was previously held at Mosport Park near Toronto on 8 occasions and in 1968 and 1970, the Mont-Tremblant circuit in Quebec. With safety concerns with Mosport blighting the 1977 event, it was decided to move the race to the new circuit in Montreal. In 1982, it was renamed in honour of Canadian Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve, father of Jacques Villeneuve, following his death earlier in the year. The circuit is located in a part of the city of Montreal known as Parc Jean-Drapeau. The park is named after the mayor of Montreal who was responsible for the organization of Expo 67.
The circuit lies on Notre Dame Island, a man-made island in the St. Lawrence River most of which was originally built up for the Expo. Also the neighboring Saint Helen’s Island had been artificially enlarged for the fairgrounds and a prominent remnant of the fair, the Biosphere can be regularly seen during television coverage of racing events. Almost half of the track – from the hairpin turn until after the pit area – runs alongside the Olympic Basin, a huge rectangular basin which was created for the rowing and canoeing events of Montreal’s 1976 Summer Olympics.
Since no Structural plans on a portion of the site are available of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, a Metallic structure would have to be installed on part of the concrete. A study will be established, to know the rebar mapping of the reinforcement of the upper and lower slab.
The solution to this problem was that Scan Plus was called to Scan the portion of the site in question. Ground Penetrating Radar was used with 1600MHz antenna penetrating up to 50 cm intra-back.
Finally, rebar mapping was done successfully and the engineers in charge of the project were able to calculate the holding capacity of the slab, therefore allowing for the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix 2015 be held in all security.
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