Construction crews are working on the slow process of raising a net of multi-ton steel cables that will support a translucent roof on the $2 billion, 65,000-seat indoor Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas that will become home to the National Football League’s Raiders in 2020, according to reviewjournal.com.
The raising of the cable net with a coordinated system of hydraulic lifts is the first step in enclosing the building and is expected to take several weeks to complete.
Don Webb, COO of the Raiders’ subsidiary building the stadium, said he expects the cables to be attached along the top rim of the roof—a process called “pinning”—by the middle of November.
The final pinning of cables along the top of the roof may be the most challenging work to date because the cables must be stretched to reach across the stadium’s top opening and were manufactured to within seven-eighths of an inch of specifications.
Workers have been preparing for the cable lift since August, placing the network of custom-built stainless-steel cables—some as long as 800 feet—on the floor of the stadium and attaching them with guide wires to a series of nodes ringing the top level of the stadium.
The cables eventually will be raised more than 200 feet above the playing surface. A cable can weigh up to 24 tons, depending on its length.
The cables will form a durable support system for a roof made of fluorine-based plastic known as ETFE—short for ethylene tetrafluoroethylene. Because the roof is clear, the stadium interior will be naturally lighted for day games with an air-conditioned interior.
About 1,800 workers currently are employed at the site; the workforce is expected to hit its peak of about 2,000 workers by the end of the year or in early 2020.
