December 22, 1999
Harrahs Joliet
Casino Barge, 4000 Passengers
BY DeJONG & LEBET, INC.
Following is the text of the press release on this project.
PRESS
RELEASE
December
20, 2001
NEW BARGE MOUNTED CASINO FOR
Harrah’s
Joliet,
Illinois
Harrah’s
recently opened a new barge mounted casino at their
Joliet
,
Illinois
property on the Des Plaines River near
Chicago
. The building on a barge replaces
two USCG certified vessels that have been at the facility since 1993, the m/v
NORTHERN STAR, a cruise-ship type vessel, and m/v SOUTHERN STAR, a sternwheeler.
The barges for the new facility were designed by DeJong
& Lebet, Inc., Naval Architects,
Jacksonville
,
Florida
. DeJong
& Lebet, Inc. also designed the two casino vessels that were replaced by
the barge-mounted casino.
The casino is actually mounted on two barges, which were built at Halter
Marine in Port Bienville,
Mississippi
. Each barge measures approximately
200’x100’x16’. The barges are
constructed of steel, except for the Main Deck, which is a 10˝” thick
concrete slab. This design technique
was developed by DeJong & Lebet, Inc.
to reduce construction costs by eliminating the steel deck plate since a
concrete deck is required even with a steel deck.
Architects for the building project were Dale and Associates,
Jackson
,
Mississippi
. Major design subcontractors were
Martin and Peltyn (structural), FEA Mechanical Engineers, RHR Consulting
(electrical), Thompson Engineering (basin-civil), Dougall Design (interior), and
Rogina Associates (civil). The
contractor for the building construction on the barge was C. Rallo Contractors,
Saint Louis
,
Missouri
.
The barge facility is certified to meet the stability and bulkheading
requirements of the Illinois State Gaming Regulations.
Third party certification services were provided by Applied Material
Technologies,
Wheaton
,
Illinois
.
The installation sequence of the casino barge facility was a challenging
design problem for the design team. The
goal was to keep the casino open while installing the barges and removing the
boats. The casino construction was
mostly completed off-site up the river from
Joliet
. The casino had temporary walls
installed so the barges could be separated.
The barges were then separated and the first half moved down the river to
Joliet
.
One boat was removed while the other boat remained open.
The first barge was installed in the open space and that half was open
for business. The second barge was
pushed down the river and installed in the second boat location after the second
boat was removed. The second barge
opened for business and the temporary walls were removed.
Both barges were now open, except where the final connections were made.
Once the barge connecting was complete, the entire 200’x200’ casino
building opened as a unit.
The entire
sequence took approximately fourteen days.
The casino is one level with very high ceilings.
The seamless passage from the land-based support building and nearly
square configuration of the casino create the feel of a land-based casino, which
is very appealing to the guests.
Harrah’s
Joliet
is the twenty-first building/barge type casino project with Marine Engineering
by DeJong & Lebet, Inc..
These include barge-mounted casinos, boarding barges, auditoriums and
entertainment centers in
Mississippi
,
Missouri
, and
Illinois
.
