High Roller (Ferris wheel)
| High Roller | |
|---|---|
 High Roller under construction, January 2014 | |
| General information | |
| Status | Under construction |
| Type | Ferris wheel |
| Location | Las Vegas Strip, Paradise, Nevada |
| Opening | Second quarter of 2014[1] |
| Height | 550 feet (167.6 m)[2][3] |
| Technical details | |
| Diameter | 520 feet (158.5 m)[4] |
| Design and construction | |
| Engineer | Arup[4] |
High Roller is a 550-foot tall (167.6 m),[2][3] 520-foot (160 m) diameter[4] giant Ferris wheel nearing completion on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, US. It is structurally complete[5] and could open as soon as February 2014.[6]
High Roller is 9 ft (2.7 m) taller[7] than the 541-foot (165 m) Singapore Flyer,[8][9] which has been the world's tallest operational Ferris wheel since it opened to the public in March 2008.[10]
Tickets were originally expected to cost less than $20 per ride,[9] but estimates had risen to "about $25 per person" by mid-2012 then "about $30 per person" in September 2013 news reports.[11] A full rotation of the wheel is expected to take about 30 minutes.[8]
Design and construction
High Roller was announced in August 2011 as the centerpiece of Caesars Entertainment Corporation's $550 million The LINQ.[12][8]
Construction, on Las Vegas Boulevard, across from Caesars Palace, behind The Quad Resort and Casino (formerly the Imperial Palace) and the Flamingo Las Vegas on the site of the former O'Sheas Casino,[9] was originally scheduled to begin in September 2011. Completion was originally expected to be in late 2013,[13] but in February 2013 it was reported that the project was behind schedule and not expected to open until the second quarter of 2014.[1]
The outer rim of the wheel was completed on September 9, 2013.[11] The first passenger cabin was delivered and installed in November 2013 and the final cabin was installed the following month.[9][14][5]
Arup Engineering, which previously worked on the Singapore Flyer, is responsible for High Roller's structural plan.[4]
Main bearings
High Roller rotates on a pair of custom-designed spherical roller bearings, each weighing approximately 19,400 lb (8,800 kg), the largest spherical roller bearings ever produced by the SKF manufacturing facility in Gothenburg, Sweden. They have an outer diameter of 7.55 feet (2.30 m), an inner bore of 5.25 feet (1.60 m), and a width of 2.07 feet (0.63 m).[15]
Outer rim
High Roller's outer rim comprises 28 sections, each 56 feet (17 m) long, which were temporarily held in place by a pair of 275-foot (84 m) radial struts during construction, before the two struts were permanently replaced by four cables.[16]
Passenger cars
High Roller's transparent spherical[8]passenger cabins were supplied by Leitner-Poma of America and designed by French sister company Sigma. Parent company Poma supplied, and Sigma also designed, the passenger capsules for the London Eye.[17][9]
The cabins are mounted outboard of the rim of the wheel and individually turned by electric motors to keep the floor horizontal throughout each 30-minute rotation.[18] This style of passenger car is usually referred to as a passenger capsule, but in High Roller's case the term passenger cabin is also widely used.
Early reports stated that High Roller was to have 32 passenger cars, each able to carry up to 40 people,[13] but later reports reduced this to 28 cars, again able to carry 40 people, giving a total capacity of 1,120 passengers.[9][17]
Each 225-square-foot (20.9 m2)[4] cabin weighs approximately 44,000 pounds (20,000 kg), has a diameter of 22 feet (6.7 m), includes 300 square feet (28 m2) of glass, and is equipped with eight flat-screen televisions and an iPod dock.[19][17][9][14]
See also
- Skyvue, a partially constructed giant Ferris wheel originally due to open in Las Vegas in 2012.[20][21]
- Voyager, a giant Ferris wheel proposed several times for Las Vegas, but never built.[22]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Hurricane Sandy drives quarterly losses for Caesars
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Las Vegas to build world's tallest observation wheel
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 World's tallest observation wheel coming to Las Vegas
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Caesars pushing forward with High Roller observation wheel
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Final passenger cabin affixed to High Roller, but work continues
- ↑ High Roller nearing completion of pod phase
- ↑ High Roller: world's largest Ferris wheel hoisted into place in Las Vegas
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 A vital Linq for Las Vegas
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 Colorado's Leitner-Poma to build cabins for huge observation wheel in Las Vegas
- ↑ Singapore Flyer opens to the public from Saturday
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 World's newest largest Ferris wheel goes up on Vegas strip
- ↑
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Las Vegas plans to top London Eye with massive Ferris wheel
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Las Vegas High Roller Observation Wheel reaches new heights
- ↑ "SKF Wins Contract for Caesars Las Vegas High Roller Wheel". Design News. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
- ↑
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 High-flying deal for Leitner-Poma
- ↑ Colorado Company To Build Las Vegas Observation Wheel
- ↑
- ↑ Bulloch's big wheel long shot, and getting longer
- ↑ High stakes for dueling Vegas observation wheels
- ↑ Voyager Las Vegas
Coordinates: 36°07′04″N 115°10′05″W / 36.117698°N 115.16815°W
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