Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

February 8, 2009

UPDATED: City Center Structures to be Re-checked

Posted by Hunter

After rebar problems at The Harmon went unnoticed, Clark County is requiring MGM Mirage to assure them and the public that the structures at City Center are sound.

This article in the Sun:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/feb/06/just-making-sure/

and another piece in the RJ:

http://www.lvrj.com/news/39192767.html

detail the process. Perhaps the biggest issue isn't that errors were made - that happens on job sites all the time - but that they still can't figure out how it happened and passed the various, required inspections. That points to a possible systemic breakdown in the evaluation process.

Updated: A story in the LV Sun today titled 'Adaptation or 'disaster'?' discusses what the Harmon changes will mean for the project overall - a very interesting piece.


Categories: Business of Gaming, CityCenter, Las Vegas Strip, MGM Resorts International
Tags: citycenter, lasvegas, mgmmirage, project citycenter, projectcitycenter, vegas


Comments

Read archived comments (10 so far)
February 6, 2009 9:29 AM Posted by Las Vegas USA

I wonder if City Center will actually ever thrive like once planned. Only time will tell.

February 6, 2009 11:30 AM Posted by Andrew H

I wondered when this would come down, after what happened at The Harmon it was only a matter of time.
Frankly who could disagree that this is a good idea? You have to wonder what would happen to MGM if mistakes were made at Aria, or Vdara. The stock price would sink to a Pennie stock overnight. This is what happens when you have all your eggs in one basket. Good luck selling the Mirage for a song, to pay for even more Perini mistakes. All involved get what the deserve for this mess. MGM and Perini bite off more then they could chew, and it's showing more every day.
The score card so far if I believe correct is;

*8 dead workers
*1 union led walk off
*1 building(Harmon) cut off at less then half the original size
* Two other buildings with structural flaws, (Veer) that had to be fixed costing god only knows what.


Great job MGM, Perini. Good luck selling off the rest of Mirage resort properties to show your independence.

February 6, 2009 1:06 PM Posted by mike_ch

The kind of incompetence on display here by the firms involved would be completely unacceptable for a major development in a world-class city. Like everything else here, construction on the whole seems to have elements of sleazyness and maybe even a swindle. MGM should sue, honestly.

Every other project these architects do is able to open without teetering skyscrapers and half a building axed for construction goofs. Until they came here.

I bet you if this had been built in Macao, none of these botches would have happened.

February 6, 2009 5:21 PM Posted by Mark D

There's a rumor that Dubai World is pulling out of financing CityCenter
http://compliancereporter.com/ArticleLogin.aspx?ArticleID=2096897

February 6, 2009 6:30 PM Posted by Luke

When Dubai entered into the agreement with MGM was there an agreement to purchase MGM stock somewhere in the $80 range as part of their investment? Does anyone know anything about that part of the agreement and what do they do now since the stock is in the $6.00 range?

February 7, 2009 4:13 AM Posted by TC from Boston

I recently watched a special on City Center on the Science Channel. Watching it, it was obvious that it was filmed before any of the problems were known but in watching it. It's pretty obvious how problems have arisen, if anyone sees it on the tv guide let everyone know because its an interesting watch, kinda hard to describe.

February 7, 2009 8:01 PM Posted by Charles

Considering the past track record, its not surprising that this happened.

February 9, 2009 7:17 AM Posted by Mark D

Perini is trying to direct the blame at the engineers.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/feb/09/perini-redirects-blame-errors-harmon/

February 9, 2009 1:13 PM Posted by Dave

Yesterday's Sun article ("Adaptation or Disaster") raises some good questions. The artist's conception makes it look like the latter--the white concrete-looking base has gone from being about 1/8th of the total elevation to 1/4th, which really makes it look squat. Hopefully they can actually come up with a better-looking finished product than that.

February 10, 2009 10:19 AM Posted by Tom M.

In the article posted by Mark D, there is a picture comparing the correct placement with what was actually done. If this is a true depiction of the problem, then I can't believe that it was just a misplacement by the workers. There must have been something wrong with the blueprints. The placements differ too much. The picture is below the "related documents" section on the right column.