Bellagio is a Triumph for FRP

By: Andrea Hewitt Shope

Italian antiques, art by masters such as Monet, Van Gogh and Renoir, and cuisine from the world-over. All of these amenities are part of the new Bellagio hotel and resort in Las Vegas, but none of these can compare to the spectacular re-creation of Italy's Lake Como that spans a quarter of a mile along the strip and features a water, light and musical show nightly. The bragging rights truly belong to Steve Wynn, chairman of Mirage Resorts and Las Vegas' most prolific developer, but the composites industry can also claim some fame associated with this world-class project.

Invisible from the surface of the lake, but supporting the entire fountain and lighting systems are approximately 400,000 pounds of black pultruded fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) and over 38,000 square feet of fiberglass grating. The entire superstructure under this lake is composed of FRP produced and installed through a unique partnership between Bedford Reinforced Plastics, Inc. (Bedford) of Bedford, Pennsylvania, Grating Systems, of Ogden Utah, and Seasafe of Lafayette, Louisiana.

The joint effort between Bedford, Seasafe and Grating Systems began back in the end of 1996 when Grating Systems became aware of this project. Kim Wardle, project manager for Grating Systems said the company had some experience with fountains and they anticipated this would be a smaller project than it was. Kevin Shehee of Seasafe says, "When we looked at the bid documents in May 1997 we almost had a heart-attack because we all assumed the project would be much smaller than it turned out to be. But we pulled our team together and focused our efforts to get the project done efficiently and on-time."

The partnership between the three firms proved to be a strong asset in this project. The unique pricing capability of the team combined with their project management expertise was crucial in the awarding of this contract as well as the completion of the project. The superstructure under the lake is about 2,600 feet long, 12' wide in places and 13' high in places and has been called in the composites industry the largest commercial use fabricated fiberglass structure in the world.

Materials were produced in Bedford, shipped to three locations; (Louisiana, Utah and Nevada) fabricated and installed between August 1997 early spring 1998. Last spring the entire superstructure was built and sat waiting for 30 million gallons of water to be released into this amazing man-made lake in mid-April.

The vision for the lake was that during the times when the fountain and light show is not operating, the water would appear as placid as its model, Lake Como, with no sign of the superstructure below the surface. View Quicktime

 

According to Kevin Shehee, there is a fixed platform and a floating platform that make up the superstructure under the lake. The fixed structure holds all the fountain equipment and an underwater maintenance platform or catwalk sits two feet below the surface of the lake. There is a floating platform that is constructed of FRP. The floating platform holds all the lights and is lifted above the surface for the nightly light shows by a unique air tank system.

Tom Wright, sales engineer for Bedford Reinforced Plastics, Inc., explains that if needed, maintenance personnel could walk the entire lake on the underwater FRP platform. "The walk platform lies just 2' below the surface of the water but you can't see it from the surface because of the black pigment we used in the FRP," says Wright.

Kim Wardle explains that the use of steel for this superstructure never entered the picture due to the need for a non-corrosive material. "This is a 30 million gallon lake in Las Vegas, Nevada where they have to import water from other states" says Wardle. "Imagine the outrage that would be caused if in five years they needed to empty the lake to repair rust." He adds that this would create an eyesore in front of this incredible hotel where even now the routine maintenance is done by scuba divers so the lake remains serene to passers-by.

Another advantage of FRP over steel on this project was the ease of installation. Wardle says that when he sat down with the installation contractor to review their bid for the erection of the structure he was surprised at the amount they were bidding. He asked why it was so high and they explained that they needed to include the equipment cost for 60-ton cranes with big booms. He explains how he convinced them that this would not be necessary.

"I had our shop take a remnant of an 18" tall I-beam from another job, attach a piece of 10" channel to it with some clips and then I took this product down to the installation contractor. I picked up this beam, which was about 3' long with a 2' piece off of it. In steel it may take four of us to get it off the ground. I picked it up and acted like I was straining and could barely carry it. I walked it over and told the guy 'I'm going to put this in your lap,' and the guy looked at me and his eyes got big and I put it in his lap and he started to laugh. That broke all the tension because he picked it with his two hands and he said, 'Unbelievable.'

What these guys were not realizing is that with fiberglass, two guys can pick up this 18" tall I-beam which is 20' long and walk away with it. You can't even tip one over in steel. What they needed on the job was not 60 ton cranes; they needed a couple of forklifts. That's exactly what they used, forklifts. There was over $400,000 in equipment they did not need on that project.

In addition, we put it together into units that were not only lightweight but were manageable so that four guys could pick up a whole walkway that is 30" wide, 16' long and bring it to the site of installation. As the guy went to put the bolts in it, he could literally pick it up with one hand as he pushed the bolts through with the other hand. There's no way that could be done with steel."

WET Design of Burbank California, the designer of the lake, calls this project, "the most ambitious water feature ever conceived in terms of choreographic complexity and scale."

According to a project description on their web-site, WET Design says there are over 1,000 water expressions and over 4,000 individually programmed white lights that give off over 2 1/2 million watts of light. The waterforms enable the fountains to interpret and perform to selected musical pieces.

Shehee says that on a recent visit to the Bellagio resort, he stood on the sidewalk in front of the fountains and watched this incredible show in amazement, knowing what lay beneath the surface of the water. The challenges of the job melted away in Shehee's mind the moment when the show was completed and Shehee was able to watch the crowds of hundreds applaud the show and gasp in amazement.

The Bellagio resort cost over $1.4 billion to construct. It houses 3,000 guest rooms, 400 suites, huge ballrooms, exclusive shops and international cuisine. It employs 8,600 people and sits on the 122-acre site that once anchored the Dunes Hotel. How fitting, that FRP, the material of the future, should play such an integral role in the construction of a resort that was created to overwhelm your senses and curiosities.