Cham, 30.11.2020

170 tons of asphalt spread by hand

The first permanently-installed pump track system in the canton of Zug has been built in Cham in recent weeks. Weather luck and expertise were in demand.

Something unusual has been built between the Cham lakeside spa (Strandbad) and the tennis courts over recent weeks. A landscape full of artificial mounds of earth has been created on the approximately 1,600 square metres of land along the Seeweg. These were then covered with asphalt about a week ago.

The project is the canton's first ‘pump track’. An installation on which you can build up speed by travelling up and down on a mobile base, such as on a bike or a  kickboard. The IG Mountainbike Zug is the driving force behind the project.

As its president Christoph Jans explains, the construction of an installation like this presents a lot of challenges. For example, the geometry of the mounds and the waves must be just right, so that momentum can be built up without leading to accidents.

The crowning - i.e. applying the asphalt on the top - is especially complicated. "The asphalt is brought into the installation by hand using a wheelbarrow, where it is then compacted and shaped with the help of a vibrating plate."

First 2 photos: IG Mountainbike Zug
The project team after the work has been completed.
Photo: Matthias Jurt (Cham, 19 November 2020)

170 tons of asphalt were distributed on the Cham Pumptrack within three and a half days. For this work, IG Mountainbike employed a company from the canton of Graubünden that specialises in pump tracks. "They planned the course, realised the shell and also carried out the asphalting," says Christoph Jans.

The work on the roadway is now almost done. "The installation will now also be fenced off, so that pumptrack riders do not accidentally end up on the Seeweg." The date for the acceptance of the pumptrack by the municipality is next Monday. Christoph Jans is delighted: "If everything runs smoothly, we can open the installation afterwards."

Due to the corona pandemic, the opening will only take place on a small scale for the time being. "If possible, however, we would like to celebrate the pump track in the spring or summer," says Jans. The installation is operated like a public playground, and can be freely used. The only requirement is that the mobile base must not have an engine.

The project has come a long way. It emerged as the winner of a competition held by the Zug Cantonal Bank in 2017. After a long search for a suitable place and a rejection by the City of Zug, a building application was submitted in Cham for the first time in February 2019 – with the plan to open the plant by the end of 2019 at the latest. This was delayed, however,  and construction was postponed until spring 2020. As the building application had to be submitted a second time in order to correct an error, the work could not be completed as desired.

The restart of the actual construction work was planned for the end of the bathing season. "Unfortunately, however, it rained for a large part of October, so we couldn't start the earthworks until the end of the month," says Christoph Jans. This was just in time, as the final asphalt work requires temperatures of more than ten degrees. "Otherwise we would have had to wait until next spring."