Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa

The building of the Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa - the largest construction project undertaken in Atlantic City's history - required several project teams, which meant that as the job progressed, communication between the teams was vital.

"They managed this massive project with separate teams for each element," a jury member said in describing the process. "Making sure that each team was talking in the middle of the night so someone didn't dump dirt where another crew was supposed to drive piles the next day was a real challenge."

Project officials described the process as a "multi-front army approach" whereby management teams and workers were divided into three groups to simultaneously build the low-rise portion, including the casino, restaurants, retail and parking; the 43-story guest room tower and infrastructure; and landscaping.

The $1.1 billion, 4.2 million-sq.-ft. resort includes a 43-story tower on a 30-acre site with 3,100 trees. It features 2,002 guestrooms and suites, 125,000 sq. ft. of gaming space, parking for 7,100 cars and a 50,000-sq.-ft. European-style spa. It has 11 retail boutiques, 11 restaurants, a 1,000-seat theater, a 15,000-sq.-ft. indoor pool/garden complex and 70,000 sq. ft. of event space.

At the height of construction, nearly 2,200 workers were on the job.

Despite its massive size - the size of the site is comparable to 233 football fields - the project was completed on a fast-track schedule of 33 months.

The Borgata was built on a barrier island over a former landfill, which necessitated using steel pipe piles. A total of 3,803 piles weighing 225-tons each were driven 60 to 65 ft. into dense sand for the 17-acre building footprint.

A shallow water table called for extensive dewatering of the site, construction of a new water treatment unit, retaining walls and a large volume of imported soil to provide proper remediation. Four foundation mats totaling 24,600 sq. ft. required roughly 730 tons of reinforced steel rebar and 8,460 tons of concrete delivered in 150 trucks. If placed end-to-end, the total length of the mats would be longer than a football field.

About 35,000 shrubs, 10 acres of wildflowers and seven acres of sod comprised the landscaping. Among the 3,100 trees planted, 850 were mature Colorado blue spruces. It took 10 months to locate all of the plant varieties used at the site.

Every plant was imported and situated with the help of 3-D computer imagery, and workers installed 69 mi. of irrigation pipes to keep the plants healthy.

"The environmental issues and solutions on this job were spectacular," remarked a jury member.

The unique shape of the hotel and strong winds off the Atlantic Ocean meant that the building's structural system had to be fine-tuned using wind tunnel analysis. A wind tunnel study was conducted to investigate the structure's response to hurricane-force winds. Shear walls were strategically located to best resist the wind loads and concrete as high as 9,000 psi was used in the walls.

The structural engineers developed a composite structural steel frame with bolted moment connections and a cellular deck system for the floors in the Borgata's low-rise component. Because of the open nature of the interior, transfer trusses were used to avoid using too many columns.

To construct the high-rise tower, workers used a cast-in-place post-tensioned concrete flat plate system as a frame. This system created thinner slabs and greater floor-to-ceiling heights that resulted in more spacious rooms. Workers poured approximately 100,000 cu. yds. of concrete for the frame and used 30,000 tons of steel rebar in only 13 months to reach the tower's height.

Interior construction began while the exterior was still unfinished by using temporary "roofs" on the 14th, 24th and 34th floors to prevent water, cold and heat infiltration. Because of a lack of electrical service, temporary chillers were brought in to keep the interior cool and humidity free.