Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino setzt auf aquatherm Produkte – On a project as highly anticipated as the expansion of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, FL, the ability to meet tight construction schedules is paramount
Guests are awaiting twice the amount of casino space, a Bora Bora-inspired pool paradise, an iconic hotel tower in the shape of a giant guitar, a new Hard Rock Live arena, and much more. It will be the ultimate venue for accommodations and entertainment when Super Bowl LIV comes to Miami in February 2020, so it must be good to go well before then. With so much on the line and no time to waste, Suffolk-Yates, the general contractor, brought in the experienced team at Kirlin to handle the piping installation for the casino’s heated and chilled water systems.
Kirlin Senior Vice President Troy Norris said the company knew is approach would have to be as innovative as the Seminole Tribe’s $1.5 billion project itself, and they were ready to take on the challenge.
Kirlin needed to fabricate and install a piping system to connect a central chiller plant to all of the casino’s outlying buildings, including the iconic guitar-shaped hotel and spacious pool area. The company had originally planned to use carbon steel joined with mechanical couplings for the casino expansion and remodel, but when asked to take a second look at the jobsite setup they decided that the situation called for a more innovative approach.
To that end, Kirlin consulted with Ferguson, the largest wholesale distributor of residential and commercial plumbing supplies and pipe, valves and fittings in the U.S., to get Ferguson’s thoughts on how to mobilize the job and make sure it stayed on schedule.
Kirlin liked what they discovered about aquatherm polypropylene-random (PPR) pipe, including weight up to 70 percent less than metal pipe, which allowed the installation crews to move, mobilize, and fabricate the pipe quickly and efficiently with less fatigue and risk of injury; an anticipated life span of 60 or more years; resistance to corrosion and scaling; and virtually leakproof heat-fusion connections that require no welding, open flames, or fire watch.
After seeing what it offered, Norris said Kirlin abandoned the conventional welded system and adopted the fusible PP-R piping system as its new build strategy.
“aquatherm allowed us to hang long runs of it overhead and get more pipe in the air quickly.” – Troy Norris, Senior Vice President, Kirlin
A significant portion of the fusion was completed offsite at Kirlin’s shop in West Palm Beach, about 20 miles north of the site, and Norris said that sped up the schedule greatly. The company scheduled pipe deliveries for nights and off hours, allowing them to maximize the amount of fusion work completed during the day.
In addition, about 3,000 ft of aquatherm green SDR 11 and SDR 7.4 MF, 2-in. through 8-in., was used for the domestic water mains in the casino expansion.
„aquatherm exceeded all expectations“, Troy Norris, Senior Vice President Kirlin
Before this project, Norris said that Kirlin routinely used carbon or stainless-steel pipe. But he thinks that will change in the future when bidding on projects where they see PP-R pipe being a great fit.
