The Vegas High Roller Location Authors Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Ibrahim Almufti Nicholas Christie Adrian Crowther Mary Ferguson Brandon Kluzniak Jason Krolicki John Lyle Hugo Mulder Rob Smith Brandon Sullivan Michael Willford Setting the scene 1. Sketch plan of the LINQ The High Roller in Las Vegas, Nevada, is development (see previous pages). now the world’s tallest observation wheel. 2. The Hettema Group’s concept for It opened to the public on 31 March 2014, the cabin experience. concluding fve years of design and construction in which Arup was involved throughout, from the early concept stage to completion. The project drew upon the expertise of numerous Arup staff from 1. around the world, demonstrating the value of the frms global networks, and many of the design challenges also required close collaboration with contractors, fabricators, suppliers and other consultants. Without the willing participation of all these parties, the High Roller would not be the technical success that it is. The High Roller is the anchor attraction of Caesars Entertainment’s new LINQ development at the heart of the Vegas Strip (Las Vegas Boulevard). The LINQ comprises a high quality retail, dining and entertainment area, replacing an under-used alley extending east from the Strip (pp2–3 and Fig 1), previously occupied by an old 2. casino and multistory car park. The LINQ connects directly with several adjacent casinos owned by Caesars. he frst stage was to develop alternative hundreds of thousands of passengers, and structural concepts in keeping with the other similar wheels quickly followed, Caesars initially engaged The Hettema desired aesthetic of the wheel (Fig 2) and in London (1895, 94m/308ft), Blackpool Group (THG), an attraction design the signifcant footprint constraints of the (1896, 61m/200ft), Vienna (1897, consultancy, to develop ideas for an iconic proposed site, but Arup’s role developed 65m/213ft) and Paris (1900, 100m/328ft), feature. Historically, Las Vegas developers progressively as the project proceeded, and all inspired by Ferris’s landmark design. intent on creating landmarks have opted for almost every aspect of the completed wheel These wheels had railcar-like cabins hung replicas of famous structures such as the was designed by, or heavily inuenced by from the rim, using gravity to stabilise them. Eiffel Tower, but Caesars and Hettema input from, Arup. They would pause as each cabin passed the decided on a large and distinctive loading area to allow passengers on and off. observation wheel. A brief history of observation wheels Images of small observation wheels can be With the exception of Vienna’s Wiener Arup was engaged in June 2009, on the basis found in documents dating back centuries, Riesenrad, all these giants of the late 19th of its involvement with two previous but it was George Ferris’s wheel, built for century have now perished. During the record-breaking giant wheels, the London the 1893 Chicago World Fair, that really 20th century, smaller Ferris wheels Eye and Singapore Flyer1, to start the brought such rides to a wide public. continued to proliferate around the world process of engineering the creative vision The original Ferris Wheel was an 80m as staples of fairgrounds and amusement into a buildable reality. (262ft) tall engineering marvel enjoyed by parks, typically ranging from 30m–50m (100ft–165ft) in height (Fig 3). 4 The Arup Journal 2/2014 86435_Arup_Text.indd 4 03/12/2014 19:38 High Roller: 167m (550ft) Singapore Flyer: 165m (541ft) 3. Size comparison of observation wheels through history. London Eye: 135m (441ft) 4. The London Eye. 5. Comparison between standoff and structural systems of the London Eye, Singapore Flyer and High Roller. Original Ferris Wheel: 80m (264ft) Common fairground wheels: 30m–50m (100ft–165ft) 3. 4. In the late 1980s and 1990s Japan embraced While this innovation certainly adds observation wheels and constructed the complexity, it gives passengers a more Cosmo Clock 21 (Yokohama, 1989, “stable” ride and a much more open view, 113m/370ft), the Tempozan Ferris Wheel particularly at the apex. (Osaka, 1997, 113m/370ft) and the Daikanransha (Odaiba, 1999, 115m/377ft). he completion in of hinas Star of Up to this time, such wheels typically used Nanchang, designed and built by Nanchang heavy truss structures, or radial compression Star Entertainment Ltd, set a new height struts with tensioned circumferential record of 160m (525ft), using the traditional elements. These were ideal for fairgrounds, compression strut system together with being simple to fabricate and easy to erect, gravity-stabilised cabins. Just two years later but this form limited the maximum size that the Arup-engineered Singapore Flyer opened could be economically achieved. with an offcial height of 1m 1ft). The Flyer has a similar structural system to The year 2000 saw the realisation of a real the Eye, but with a two-chord ladder truss technical leap forward with the opening of instead of the Eyes tri-chord, stabilised in its the 135m (443ft) London Eye, designed by weak axis by the cables. arks arfeld Architects and originally engineered by Arup ig ). Developing the reference design aesars ntertainments vision for its new Its structure is exactly like that of a wheel had aspirations of lightness, freedom colossal bicycle wheel, with tensioned and an unforgettable passenger experience in spokes holding a rim in compression every respect — to achieve something (interestingly, the same system used in the magical. hus motivated, the Arupettema frst urry of wheels, including erriss design attempted to push the boundaries to own), and enabling it to be much larger make the most of a panorama of than any previous wheel. Las Vegas and its spectacular surrounding desert environment. The rim of the Eye comprises a fully braced tri-chord steel truss, and the cables This led to the development of a narrow, 5. are arranged to provide lateral stability as single tube rim supporting 32 large spherical well as carry the weight of the wheel. cabins (changed to 28 as built), each with a Arguably even more importantly, the Eyes single slewing ring, standing further out cabins are positioned outside the rim and do from the rim than is the case on either the not rely simply on gravity to stay level. London Eye or the Singapore Flyer ig ). Instead, they are captured in two slewing This minimises visual obstruction and bearings and are rotated by an active maximises the panoramic views and stability system. sensation of free ying as it revolves. The Arup Journal 2/2014 5 86435_Arup_Text.indd 5 04/12/2014 21:12 6. Anatomy of the High Roller. Cabins 7. Early cabin design concept. Rim Cables Hub with Bearing spindle within Brace leg Cabin support frames Support legs Drive platform structure and system Boarding platform structure 6. Foundations Foundations When initial concepts for the High Roller • the mechanisation, including the drive and (Figs 6–7) had been selected by the client, control systems Arup was commissioned to develop a • cabin design, including structure, façade/ detailed reference design, in collaboration glazing, HVAC, doors, controls, with THG, to enable the client to take this communications, and stabilisation systems unconventional project to the construction market with a high degree of defnition. • utility and emergency (back-up) electrical The reference design was fully power distribution for all systems including multidisciplinary, and its scope included: attraction lighting fre and evacuation engineering, including • structural design of the wheel, supporting development of emergency response 7. structure, and passenger loading building planning, means of access and escape, • wind engineering and occupant comfort emergency power defnition, and back-up assessment under wind-induced motions safety systems • geotechnical engineering and • acoustic and noise consulting foundation design • preliminary FMEA (failure modes and effects analysis) documentation for permitting. 6 The Arup Journal 2/2014 86435_Arup_Text.indd 6 03/12/2014 19:38 8. Each High Roller cabin hangs from a V-shaped support frame. 9. The support structure under construction, showing the canting inwards of the main legs, and the brace leg angling outwards from the spindle. Reference structural design Design basis The design of most aspects of the High Roller followed a performance-based approach. While existing codes of practice and design specifcations offer solid methodologies for buildings or bridges, they are not fully applicable to unusual structures such as giant observation wheels. One primary code used for the project covers the design of amusement rides2, and this was selectively supplemented with portions of other codes, and bespoke methodologies developed by Arup. Where appropriate and feasible, the results of these analyses were verifed with physical testing. Support structure The site constraints were a major driver in developing the form of the wheel support 8. structure. The site is bounded to the west by a raised monorail, to the east by a road, and 9. to the north by a road and an underground storm culvert. This left only a narrow footprint for the wheel to sit on with some additional space to the east — in a parking lot on the other side of the road — if needed for some lateral stability structure. The four main steel tubular legs supporting the hub which carries the weight of the wheel are inclined to form two A-frames in the north-south direction, which also provide lateral stability in that direction. However, both frames have to be canted inwards (from a maximum separation at the hub) so that their foundation plinths at the north and south extremes of the site ft within the sites restricted width. A single tubular steel brace leg, from the east end of the spindle over the road to a concrete plinth in the parking lot, provides out-of-plane stability (Fig 9).