High Roller is a 550-foot tall (167.6 m), 520-foot (158.5 m) diameter giant Ferris wheel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States of America. It is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment Corporation.
It opened to the public on March 31, 2014 and is currently the world's tallest Ferris wheel. It is 9 ft (2.7 m) taller than its predecessor, the 541-foot (165 m) Singapore Flyer, which had held the record since 2008.
Video High Roller (Ferris wheel)
Design
High Roller was announced in August 2011 as the centerpiece of Caesars Entertainment Corporation's $550 million The LINQ. Arup Engineering, which previously consulted on the Singapore Flyer, acted as the structural engineer.
The wheel rotates on a pair of custom-designed spherical roller bearings, each weighing approximately 19,400 lb (8,800 kg). Each bearing has an outer diameter of 7.55 feet (2.30 m), an inner bore of 5.25 feet (1.60 m), and a width of 2.07 feet (0.63 m).
The outer rim comprises 28 sections, each 56 feet (17 m) long, which were temporarily held in place during construction by a pair of 275-foot (84 m) radial struts, prior to being permanently secured by four cables.
The passenger cabins (or capsules) are mounted on the wheel's outboard rim and are individually rotated by electric motors to smoothly maintain a horizontal cabin floor throughout each full rotation. Preliminary designs anticipated 32 passenger cabins, each with a 40-passenger capacity --with the final design accommodating 28 40-person cabins and a total capacity of 1,120 passengers.
Each 225-square-foot (20.9 m2) cabin weighs approximately 44,000 pounds (20,000 kg), has a diameter of 22 feet (6.7 m), includes 300 square feet (28 m2) of glass, and is equipped with eight flat-screen televisions and an iPod dock.
At night the wheel is illuminated by a 2,000-LED system which can display a single solid color, differently colored sections, multiple colors moving around the rim, and custom displays for special events and holidays.
Maps High Roller (Ferris wheel)
Construction
Located on Las Vegas Boulevard, across from Caesars Palace, construction was originally scheduled to begin in September 2011 with a late 2013 completion; subsequently revised to early 2014.
The outer rim of the wheel was completed on September 9, 2013. The first passenger cabin was delivered and installed in November 2013 and the final cabin was installed the following month.
After preliminary testing, High Roller's lighting system was illuminated at sunset on February 28, 2014.
High Roller opened to the public at 4 p.m. EST on March 31, 2014.
Ticketing
Tickets were originally expected to cost less than $20 per ride, but estimates had risen to "about $25 per person" by mid-2012 then "about $30 per person" in September 2013 news reports.
When High Roller opened to the public in March 2014, tickets for a single 30-minute ride, the time taken for the entire wheel to rotate once, cost $24.95 (daytime) and $34.95 (nighttime). Other ticket options included a $59.95 Express Pass, allowing the holder to skip the line and ride any time.
Successor as world's tallest
Both the New York Wheel, in the United States, and the Ain Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, will, if completed as proposed, be taller than High Roller.
The 192 m (630 ft) New York Wheel was first reported in June 2012 and officially announced in September 2012, with construction planned to begin early in 2014 and completion in 2015, but the project has been severely delayed. Erection of the main support structure is due to begin early in 2017, and it is expected to open in April 2018.
The 210 m (689 ft) Ain Dubai was announced in February 2013, with construction to begin in June 2013 and completion in 2015. Construction eventually began almost two years behind schedule in May 2015. Erection of the main support structure was completed in 2016 and it is now expected to open in 2017.
Gallery
See also
- High Roller, a former roller coaster atop the Stratosphere Las Vegas tower
- Voyager, a giant Ferris wheel proposed several times for Las Vegas, but never built
- List of tallest buildings and structures in the world
References
External links
- Official website
- Caesars Sees Slow Climb for Ferris Wheel on the Las Vegas Strip
- Media related to High Roller (Ferris wheel) at Wikimedia Commons
Source of article : Wikipedia
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