After 31 long months, the construction of Allegiant Stadium, the brand new home of the Las Vegas Raiders has finally completed. The joint venture of Mortenson | McCarthy announced that they have received their certificate of occupancy at the end of July.
In addition to hosting the NFL’s Raiders, the $1.97 Billion stadium will also be the future home to UNLV Football, NCAA’s Las Vegas Bowl, and the PAC-12 football championship games in 2020 (assuming that still happens) and 2021. The structure holds 65,000 seats and features a natural turf field that can move inside and outside of the stadium for better growing conditions, a translucent roof, and, apparently, a night club (huge Las Vegas flex). The exterior features the design aesthetic of a sports car, which also fits perfectly in the city.
The retractable field weighs an astonishing 20 million pounds and is able to move inside and outside of the stadium thanks to 540 electronically-powered wheels. The 7-acre translucent roof system, made of Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (or ETFE for those of you not studying for the next spelling bee), is suspended by 100 stainless steel cables.
In total, the JV said that the construction required the work of over 200 firms, including contractors, designers, engineers, vendors and more. Perhaps more importantly, their safety record was well below industry average with a recordable incident rate (TRIR) of 0.98.
Workforce and business inclusion were also a focus for the group, which stated 62% of the workforce was minority and/or female, and small businesses comprised 23% or the total companies working on the project.
Throughout the construction, the team had released a series of in-depth videos of the construction process, called “From the Ground Up,” which was narrated by Mike Rowe. To watch the first nine of the 11 fascinating episodes, you can check out my first article from last year here and my second article from earlier this year here. I’ll embed episodes 10 and 11 to the bottom of this article.
In addition to latest From the Ground Up videos, I’ve also embedded a video that gives an in-depth tour of the nearly complete stadium (at the time) given by one of the architects.
From the Ground Up - Ep. 10: "How The Forces Work"
From the Ground Up - Ep. 11: "There’s No Road Map For This"
Exclusive Tour of Allegiant Stadium
Shane is the creator of Construction Junkie and an active construction project manager. In his career, he has managed interior remodel projects, site development, construction safety, governmental project compliance, and facility maintenance. He has a strong passion for construction technology and safety, as well as sharing the knowledge or insights he has gained throughout his career.