The team building a sportsbook and poker room inside Harrah’s New Orleans was already facing a tight schedule and the constraints of working inside an active casino. Then they opened up the walls and found the built condition did not quite match what they expected. A column line was off by 8 in. and the original structural steel design did not meet the curvature capabilities of a large video screen, necessitating redesign.
But the project team is working hard to make up for lost time. The project is the first interior phase of a $325-million hotel expansion and casino rebranding being done as the property changes from a Harrah’s to a Caesars. The whole renovation is expected to take about three years, says Ryan Worrell, senior director of design and construction at Caesars Entertainment Inc.