Expansion project on schedule
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority convention center expansion is on track, including its design plans for an underground transportation route.
The current construction phase — phase two — entails adding
1.4 million square feet to the current convention center and a 600,000-square-foot exhibition hall on space previously used as a parking lot. That work is about 32 percent complete, LVCVA CEO Steve Hill said at the LVCVA board meeting Tuesday morning.
The project is one of many set to be completed by the end of next year, in time for CES 2021 in January.
“If you drive by every day, you can see progress being made,” Hill said.
The convention center has started installing HVAC and chiller equipment on the roof, and about two-thirds of the trusses that form the exhibition hall roof are in place.
“The entire exhibition hall should be framed within the next couple of months or so,” Hill said.
The recent Southern California earthquakes that rattled Las Vegas did not impact the project, he said.
“If a 7.1 earthquake was here, that answer might be different,” he said. “But the shocks that were received from that earthquake did not damage the expansion.”
The final cost of the expansion project has not been determined. In September, the board approved a guaranteed maximum price of $758.1 million. This falls into the $792.1 million construction-manager-at-risk contract the LVCVA has with a joint venture of New Yorkbased Turner Construction and Martin-harris Construction of Las Vegas.
Hill said the LVCVA will spend
the next six to eight weeks completing the price for the project.
“There’s still a gap between the parties on what that final price will be,” Hill said. “It’s not exceptionally sizable at this point. We still see opportunities to close it.”
The design is still being tweaked for the underground point-to-point on-demand transportation system, also set to be ready in time for CES 2021, under the Las Vegas Convention Center.
One station on the west side of the convention center is set to be built above ground instead of below, and another station moved from a lot on the far east side of the campus to a location near the east entrance of the convention center’s south hall.
“It is a lot that we do not lease to customers, which makes it more appealing,” Hill said.
In May, the LVCVA’S board voted to approve a $48.7 million contract with California-based The Boring Co., a spinoff of Elon Musk’s Spacex venture.
The system would use autonomous electric vehicles, or AEVS, on three types of Tesla Model X chassis with rubber tires, operated in automatic pilot mode.
Boring Co. is expected to develop less than a mile of twin vehicular tunnels, one pedestrian tunnel, three stations, elevators and escalators to access the stations. Additionally, the company is slated to develop all of the back-of-thehouse features for lighting, power, video surveillance, ventilation and life safety, cellphone and Wi-fi systems, intercom and public address systems, and a control room.
Contact Bailey Schulz at bschulz@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0233.