Steve Burns
WMAL.com
OXON HILL, MD — (WMAL) Cement and steel continue rising at the MGM National Harbor casino site as officials expect an opening in the second half of 2016.
“A lot depends on this winter,” said Executive Director John Rooney. “The goal of course is trying to get the roof on the project and trying to get the walls enclosed before the cold weather comes.”
The hotel portion of the site is at six floors of 24 total. Rooney said they aim to have it topped out by the end of the year.
“We average about 1,000 contractors a day, and that’ll blossom up to about 1,500 in the spring,” Rooney said. They work in three shifts, 24 hours a day. “The pace of construction has been terrific. A lot of very good contractors working very, very hard.”
The hill the casino is built on becomes much more evident moving closer to the Potomac. Seven levels of the parking garage are built into the hill, becoming more exposed toward the bottom.
“From one end to the other, the site drops 90 feet. The building is over 1,500 feet long, which is over five football fields long,” Rooney said. “It’s designed to take advantage of the topography, to work with it instead of against it.”
The steel marking the casino level is going up above the parking garage, and above that, the ballroom. “And then you can see the roof that’s starting to be formed, the wing shape at the highest level. That’s going to form the very unique surfboard-shape roof that we have,” Rooney said.
At the bottom of the hill, the Potomac snakes by, past the National Harbor Ferris Wheel, towards Mount Vernon. Guests on the exterior terraces will be able to see the Washington Monument and the National Mall in the distance, Rooney said.
“We have over a quarter of a million square feet of exterior terraces,” Rooney said. “The designers put a lot of thought into it.”
How long before it’ll really start to feel like a casino?
“The slot bases, which will be the beginning of the fit out of the casino, will start being installed in May.”
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