DALLAS — With 23 floors, a thousand rooms and a price tag of $550 million, the Dallas convention center hotel is far from a paltry project. But in the last few weeks, it has been rising as fast as a model home in a subdivision.
Just six weeks ago, the hotel was a three-story deep hole. Now, parts of it are already three stories tall.
The site bustles with highly-orchestrated frenzy. On a busy day, close to 50 concrete trucks arrive over an eight-hour period. They can carry as much as 100 tons of cement among them.
The 300 workers at the site — metal fabricators, concrete finishers, form carpenters and plumbers — observe a tight close order drill. One floor is poured, using hydraulic concrete pumps.
It hardens in a day. As it does, workers begin removing forms beneath in readiness to pour the next floor above.
As the hotel gains altitude, the workforce will increase to as many as 800.
What happens if something goes drastically wrong? Jeff Parsons of contractor Balfour Beatty Construction answers that question with a nervous laugh. "If anything goes wrong, it's more of 'How do we solve it and get things right on paper?'" he explained. "[We] look at drawings and plan before it becomes an issue out here."
The contractor hopes every contingency has been anticipated — down to doing its own weather forecasting.
At this pace of construction, every day counts. And that's what the city's contract with Balfour Russell Pegasus — the joint venture building the structure — calls for.
The hotel is scheduled for completion in less than two years. Miss the deadline and the company pays a $70,000 daily penalty.
E-mail bharris@wfaa.com
