$7 Billion project on the strip in Vegas

This is going to be massive, at what point will Vegas be overbuilt?

Link

On a flight back from Las Vegas several years ago, I ended up sitting next to a guy who was the project manager for the company that was the construction manager for the Venetian. We had a great conversation, and I almost got a project out of it.

The guy had been brought out of retirement to take over the project because the schedule was slipping. With about $2 billion in financing, every day of late opening was a huge oerating expense. When we chatted they were working on the foundation, and had recently discovered groundwater contamination from a gasoline station that had occupied the site years earlier. The contamination problem was threatening to delay construction about six months, which would have been a disaster.

He invited me to visit the project site my next trip to Las Vegas (which was about a month or so later), and I took him up on the offer.

His firm had completely taken over a two-story, 1960's era motel on the Strip close to the project, and they were using it as a project office. On the second story, they had opened up the walls between all of the rooms so you could walk from one end of the motel to the other end without going out to the corridor along the outside of the rooms. Along one wall, they had a GANTT chart for the entire project. It was the biggest project GANTT chart I've even seen. It was done off a plotter using 60-inch paper, and was about 50 feet long.

At the time of my visit they were getting ready to pour the foundation. That pour set a world record for the largest amount of concrete placed in a single pour. (BTW, even though the process of placing concrete is called a "pour" concrete is never physically poured. Pouring concrete causes the aggregate to settle out of the mix, resulting in weak spots and voids. Concrete is always "placed" using techniques, such as concrete pumping, that minimize segregation.) That concrete project had a huge chart of its own for that effort.

My contact introduced me to his employee who was handling the foundation project. The foundation guy described some of what they were doing to get ready for the foundation pour. For the pour, he had reserved all of the concrete ready-mix production capacity in the Las Vegas area, He had also engaged every contractor in the area and throuighout much of Arizona, northern Nevada, and southern California who had portable ready-mix equipment (e.g., highway contractors who have equipment to mix concrete during roaprojects). He had reserved almost every single concrete ready-mix delivery truck in southern Nevada, and quite a few out of Arizona, southern California and Nevada.

IOW, when they did this project, they shut down every other concrete project in southern Nevada, and made significant dents in activities in Arizona, Reno, and the Los Angeles basin.

Why did they go to that much trouble and extra expense? Again, it's that time issue. While it was more expensive to do it in a single pour, had they completed the foundation in staged pours they would have had to wait several days between pours to allow each pour to set up sufficiently to remove forms and prepare the surface of the old pour to bond with the next pour. Because construction of of the buildings themselves could not commence until the foundation was completed, every day of delay in completing the foundation transalted into a day of delay in opening.

By doing the foundation in a single pour they were recovering about two weeks of schedule slippage. And the added cost to do that was trivial compared with the cost of a delayed opening.

Steve, normally they take many months to get the groundwater contamination cleaned up. How long did they take over there?

We have seen it here at several gasoline stations in the area that were standing empty for so long. Some of them have gone out of business or have sold and cleaning up equipment has been standing there for years on these lots.

iconnections said:

Steve, normally they take many months to get the groundwater contamination cleaned up. How long did they take over there?

We have seen it here at several gasoline stations in the area that were standing empty for so long. Some of them have gone out of business or have sold and cleaning up equipment has been standing there for years on these lots.

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AFAIK, they're still pumping and treating groundwater. The facilities are probably well hidden.

Regarding their transportation plans, here's what is being proposed.


...and here's a good source on the Harmon Corridor, which includes the new City Center project.
http://www.vegastodayandtomorrow.com/harmon_corridor.htm

That transportation map, in my opinion, shows one more stupid solution on top of another. The monorail has light usage, and is very user unfriendly. Who wants to walk half an hour through a casino to get on the monorail, and then walk another half hour through a casino to get back on the strip?

The Deuce is so popular because it runs right up and down the strip. For some reason Vegas can't figure out that it needs an elevated monorail that runs right up the middle of the strip, with stops at major street intersections.

This would allow people to spend less time walking, and more time spending money in casinos and restaurants. But what do us tourists know?

As far as the $7 billion dollar Project CityCentre, that will be built directly across from Polo Towers, so I won't have far to walk to get to that mega resort!

Assuming I haven't sold my Polo Towers unit by then.

Based on the desire of over 44 Million People who will come to visit this year, I don't think Las Vegas will be overbuilt any time in the near future. The numbers are astounding!

Fern

CaliDave said:

This is going to be massive, at what point will Vegas be overbuilt?

Link

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Has there been any more talk about trying to buy Nellis and shutting down McCarran?

MarTN said:

Has there been any more talk about trying to buy Nellis and shutting down McCarran?

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I had not heard that particular rumor. What I do know is there were plans on the table to build a second airport somewhere out by Jean, NV but there were enviromental impact studies being done. They were to divert all non-passenger service to that airport, freeing up space for more passenger airline traffic at McCarren. I am not sure where those plans stand at this time.

cluemeister said:

For some reason Vegas can't figure out that it needs an elevated monorail that runs right up the middle of the strip, with stops at major street intersections.

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That would have been a better plan but seems impossible with the current investment. I think they could increase rides a lot by having a link to the airport and downtown even with the current layout. Walking to a station is worth it for longer trips.

I think they could also increase monorail rides by REDUCING the price instead of continually raising it. It seems awfully expensive for what you get.

As I remember, it costs $5/trip or $15/day. I think locals get it for $1.

GaryDouglas said:

As I remember, it costs $5/trip or $15/day. I think locals get it for $1.

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On my last Vegas trip (summer 2005) I thought abut using the monorail. It was my mom and I on the trip, meeting up with relatives. It ended up being significantly cheaper and faster to rent a car, tip for valet parking and use the back streets, then the monorail.

I think the car rental was $60 for along weekend, plus valet tips. The monorail would have been over $100 for the two of us.

JT

Are any of the properties in City Center timeshares?

I was thinking to myself, wow, I'm so happy that the Grand Chateau is across from all of this! Maybe it will be a good rental! But then I realized that some of the units within City Center might be timeshares themselves. Does anyone know? How about the MGM Grand properties?

lostinjapan14 said:

I was thinking to myself, wow, I'm so happy that the Grand Chateau is across from all of this! Maybe it will be a good rental! But then I realized that some of the units within City Center might be timeshares themselves. Does anyone know? How about the MGM Grand properties?

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It seems to me that in the original plans, there were supposed to be some timeshare units in the MGM project. If there actually will be, how many and what their cost is I don't know. Plans change with the wind direction for projects in Vegas.

That is a super cool site showing the City center! I passed it onto my Project Management instructor so she can use it as an example of good PM and how much goes into it etc!

Thanks

travel girl said:

That is a super cool site showing the City center! I passed it onto my Project Management instructor so she can use it as an example of good PM and how much goes into it etc!

Thanks

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I don't suppose you could post the link to that site here could you?