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Las Vegas debut for Doka’s SKE self-climbing formwork system on 26-story Caesars Palace luxury hotel and casino in a fast track 11 month contract.
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Time is money in Las Vegas where major casino resort projects are built at a breathtaking pace. The 26-story Caesars Palace II luxury hotel tower is no exception.
Teams from Doka and its US operation, Conesco Doka, have responded to the challenge by providing contractor Perini Building Co. with a state-of-the-art formwork system, which has helped shave valuable months from an already-tight program.
Doka’s SKE self-climbing system is making its Las Vegas debut on the tower, which will be the grand finale, completing a period of large expansion of the Caesars Palace casino resort.
The project is being built to a schedule that is fast track in the extreme, with just 11 months allowed for the entire superstructure of the tower from the formwork award date and 9 months of this pouring concrete.
Rapid delivery and a streamlined method of working are helping Perini maintain their typically aggressive schedule to an anticipated completion of the superstructure in just 35 weeks, stripping three months from the original time frame, without sacrificing quality.
Perini is under contract for the tower, which includes 949 rooms and facilities such as a wedding chapel, dining and retail areas. Bergman Walls & Associates is the executive architect and had previously worked with Perini on the resort’s Palace Tower in 1997.
When completed in the 3rd quarter of 2005, the new 345 ft-high luxury tower will bring the total number of rooms available at Caesars Palace to more than 3300.
Three key Doka formwork systems are at the heart of the tower’s construction – SKE 100 automatic climbers, Top 50 large-area formwork and Framax universal panel column forms. The company was able to supply the entire customized self-climbing system in just six weeks to help meet Perini’s demanding schedule to deliver the hotel by the 3rd quarter of 2005.
There were several reasons for the choice of the Doka SKE automatic climbing system. Thanks to the SKE units, even large formwork assemblies can be lifted without the need for a crane. Climbing is largely independent of weather - including wind – which is one of the reasons why the system is very safe to use.
The technique is faster than conventional formwork, and allows consistently high quality. Its modular design enables its use on structures of any shape and height. Such has been the success that Perini plans on using it again on other projects in the near future.
“The Doka self-climbing form system was one of the key pieces that enabled Perini to negotiate a very logistically challenging site. This formwork system provided the ability to jump formwork, install reinforcing, and button up for pours in a limited amount of time. This allowed Perini to maintain their typical fast, efficient and cost-effective schedule,” said Jerry Lee Peterson, General Superintendent for Perini. “Conesco Doka stayed right with us and serviced the job well.”
A total of seven gantry-style cores are being built in two clusters at opposite halves of the building. The distinctive blue and yellow Doka colors can clearly be seen as the building rises.
Up to eight SKE 100 self-climbers are used at each core position to lift the formwork. Most of the steel superstructure frames for the gantry style self-climbing SKE systems are out of sight, hidden within the elevator shafts. But one section is
attached to the building's exterior for construction of the ‘gallow’ section - an exterior wall running between two of the cores.
A key factor in the project’s rapid progress has been the decision to synchronize core and deck construction. Local practice more commonly involves pouring the deck and cores at different times, and then climbing the core formwork out of the way. This can take two or three days per cycle.
Casting the slab and core walls in a single pour at each level saves a day from the schedule. The core formwork is then climbed out of the way that night. Two different lift heights are used for the pours, from 9 ft and 13 ft 4 in, to accommodate variations in the heights. High lower floors were poured in double lifts, as will be the top penthouse floors.
The tower floors rise in two stages. One side of the building is always a day ahead of the other. This means that the formwork on the east end of the building has already been poured, stripped and moved up before the west end is ready to receive concrete.
Stripping the formwork is straightforward as there is plenty of space available and the panels are easy to move around. There is room to walk between the forms and the walls when the system is stripped back, thanks to the design of the forms and the steel climbing system superstructure. This also allows easy access for the placement of rebar and climbing anchors.
Another advantage of the system is that few people are needed – a crew of just 10 workers is required to work all the cores. Doka supervisors were on the site for six weeks of round-the-clock management and instruction of Perini’s site personnel during the initial assembly and cycling of the cores.
Doka's Top 50 large-area formwork system is used, with over 8,000 sq ft needed in total. Perini opted for the Doka Ready-to-use service, which meant the forms were assembled off-site, including form plywood, and delivered in wide oversized loads, ready to be put to work immediately. The service is particularly popular in places such as Las Vegas where sites can be very space limited and congested - particularly during the start-up period.
Doka Beam Forming Support 20 brackets were used inside the cores to support the slab edges from the climbing superstructures. This allowed the flying deck formwork to stop at the edge of the slab instead of protruding into the cores. This eliminated conflicts between the two systems, freeing up space in the cores.
Conesco Doka provided Framax Universal Panel column forms to allow Perini to pour half a floor, or 30 columns at a time. The columns are as high as 30 ft, with dimensions up to 30 in by 64 in. The high allowable pour rate of the forms and their easy adjustability helped Perini speed through the pours and the resizing of the forms as the column cross section reduces through the structure.
The entire formwork system was designed by Conesco Doka and built in the Doka Ready-to-use West Coast Service Facility in Riverside, California.
As well as saving time during construction, Conesco Doka was able to offer an extremely short delivery period – even though much of the steel superstructure for the SKE system was custom-made. Everything hinged on delivery of the custom parts, as none of the system could be put together until they arrived. Conesco Doka achieved delivery in just six weeks – which included the time needed for design and fabrication.
The success at Caesars Palace has contributed to Conesco Doka securing other prestigious projects in the city. These include the new Red Rock Station Hotel & Casino, the Palms Casino & Hotel Phase II Expansion and the new South Coast Hotel & Casino.
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