... dictates in Vegas. There aren’t too many people who can tackle it. Contractors expect you to be there before equipment breaks down. We always keep units on standby.”

The project’s secret weapon for speedy erection is a unique compensator system for flying slab tables created by Signal-Rite LLC, Hayward, Calif. The supplier takes a 20-ton-rated electric chain hoist manufactured by Harrington Hoists Inc., Manheim, Pa., that hooks onto a spreader bar with 32-ft-long steel slings. The remote-controlled system, which attaches onto a crane hook, allows contractors to adjust slab angles without using a guide rope. Most hoists, by comparison, are only engineered to go straight up and down.

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“This allows limited angle pulling from 15° to 90° vertical,” says Jeff York, president of Signal-Rite. “So when they are lifting the slab it doesn’t hit the table above or below.” Ceco, which is placing Fontainebleau’s decks, claims the compensator reduces fly time by up to one-third. It has used the product incident-free for three months without any binding. Ceco will fly 10 to 15 trusses daily, measuring up to 80 ft x 30 ft in size. “Normally, you have incidents with compensators breaking down once every few weeks,” says Terry Cronin, Ceco’s project supervisor, a 20-year Las Vegas construction veteran. “But this actually works, and with less wear to the compensator.”

At CityCenter, crews are working three shifts, six days a week, to finish the largest privately financed project in U.S. history, company officials claim. The $7.8-billion, 18.7-million-sq-ft mixed-use complex sits between Monte Carlo and Bellagio. The 76-acre development by MGM Mirage Inc., Las Vegas, will have residences, hotels, casinos, restaurants and showrooms. Perini Building Co., Phoenix, is general contractor, Tishman is construction manager, and San Francisco-based Gensler is master architect.

Anchoring the mammoth project are twin, 60-story cast-in-place concrete-and-glass hotel towers designed by Cesar Pelli. The residential portion contains 1,543 condo-hotel units and 1,159 condos in five cast-in-place towers. It also features a 550,000-sq-ft shopping mall designed by Daniel Libeskind, as well as 15,000 parking spaces, 12.8 acres of open space, a 2,090-ft-long monorail and a $150-million people-mover system.

The project’s equipment needs are awesome. Perini has 800 telephones, 632 radios and 140 vehicles on site. CityCenter will use 300 golf carts, 2,500 scissor lifts, 23 Hercules hoists and 14 Terex-Comedil 35-ton tower cranes. Perini works with multiple vendors to equip the project; many firms purchased additional goods to service the job.

“They have to be available 24/7 to take care of problems the same day. Time is money,” says Shelton Grantham, Perini’s vice president of field operations. “We have mechanics out 10 to 12 hours a day for maintenance and repair. We perform standard equipment maintenance and fueling at night and on the weekends.”

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Tishman Construction Corp. Of Nevada LLC.

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Tishman Construction Corp. Of Nevada LLC. The $4.8-billion Echelon project uses six, dual-car Alimak Scando 650s hoists being showcased during CONEXPO-CON/AGG in Las Vegas.

CityCenter coordinates equipment delivery and operation with the adjacent $3-billion Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino. The 6.9-million-sq-ft mega-resort developed by 3700 Associates LLC calls for a 2,998-room condo, hotel, casino and entertainment complex on 8.5 acres with zero lot lines. Perini also is the prime, with a $1.925-billion contract that underscores the speed-to-delivery mindset with $50,000 a day in bonuses or penalties starting Dec. 18, 2009.

Cosmopolitan maximized location by excavating down 75 ft to create a five-level, 3,800-vehicle parking garage. The feat required 110,000 truck trips to remove nearly 850,000 cu yd of soil. Excavating the 43-acre hole entailed placing a slurry wall and pumping 100,000 gallons of water daily to detention basins that discharge into Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead. The water table is only 16 ft below grade.

“The project uses a permanent dewatering system that’s the first of its kind in Las Vegas,” says Steve DeWees, Perini’s project executive. “It will continue pumping out up to 100,000 gallons of water a day for the life of the complex.”

Perini is using five hammerhead tower and six mobile cranes to erect the cast-in-place, post-tensioned buildings via flying forms. Cranes run through openings that later will be closed due to site constraints that also force materials to be staged 10 miles away. Cosmopolitan, which broke ground on Oct. 25, 2005, is scheduled to finish on time and within budget.

“We have enough history to break down these projects by square footage and come up with numbers for everything from manpower to equipment,” says Grantham. “The price isn’t all you have to go by. It all comes down to time in this town.”