77
RIGGING
SITE REPORT
MARCH 2014
ACT
Entertainment’s $550 million retail, dining
and entertainment development, referred
to as LINQ. Located at the heart of the
Las Vegas Strip, the new venue offers
spectacular views of Las Vegas and the
surrounding valley. At 550 feet tall, the
High Roller will eclipse both The London
Eye and the Singapore Flyer.
Several crane, rigging and specialized
transportation companies played a huge
role in the construction of the massive
attraction, including Menomonee Falls,
WI-based Enerpac.
W
hen the construction
industry converges on Las
Vegas for ConExpo-Con-
Agg this month, the skyline will again
be filled with crane booms mingled with
all the usual Sin City landmarks. And
there’s also a new one: the world’s largest
observation wheel, known as the High
Roller.
Basically a high tech, very tall Ferris
Wheel, the High Roller has been
under construction for a couple of
years and is the focal point of Caesars
Erecting the world’s tallest
observation wheel in Las
Vegas required some high
stakes rigging.
For all contractors involved, the scope
and scale of the project was enormous.
It was a true engineering feat on many
levels. The wheel includes 28 observation
cabins, each 20 feet in diameter and each
weighing upwards of 25 tons. Each cabin
will accommodate up to 40 people. Each
cabin is outfitted with HVAC systems
and in-cabin entertainment systems,
with 300-square-feet of windows offering
360-degree views of Las Vegas.
Significant engineering
This unique project required a significant
amount of construction engineering
and procedure development, mainly
performed by wheel contractor and
erector American Bridge Company and its
consulting engineer, Zieman Engineering.
Erecting the rim of this massive wheel
proved to be the first significant challenge.
The rim consisted of 28 different sections,
each weighing about 45 tons. The
challenge was to lift, assemble and then
rotate the huge rim sections so the next
section could be assembled, thus allowing
the wheel to take shape.
As a supplier to American Bridge,
Enerpac developed and supplied the
Hydraulic Rotating Mechanism (HRM) to
performance requirements necessary to
assemble and erect the rim sections. The
HRM was supplied as a temporary system
High rollers
The Las Vegas High Roller will include 28
observation cabins, each 20 feet in diameter,
weighing 25 tons and accommodating up to
40 people. Each cabin is outfitted with HVAC
systems and in-cabin entertainment systems.
Enerpac Hydraulic Rotating
Mechanism (HRM), attached to
a 45-ton rim section, was used
to grip, hold and turn the rim
during construction.
