With a site situated at an altitude of 9,500 ft, three tower cranes were needed to construct this $222-million hotel and casino in the heart of Cripple Creek. The 300-room four-star hotel features a 16,000-sq-ft gaming area, fine dining, event spaces, a spa, fitness center and rooftop pool.

Early scope changes to enhance the facility’s structures led to the scope being split across three phases. With six exterior types and 39 distinct guest room types, attention to detail and quality control proved essential.

The initial three stories of the building feature brick blending with neighboring structures, while the taller portion, set back from main street, showcases modern design elements such as gold-hued panels and glass that reflect the abundant sunlight that is common in Colorado.

Photo courtesy Hensel Phelps and Moss Photography

A portion of the existing casino was renovated before crews tied into the new hotel. The team preserved a large portion of the original historic building and even unearthed relics from the town’s reconstruction in 1896 after a devastating fire.

Transporting ready-mix concrete to the remote jobsite for the cast-in-place foundation and structure would have required additional logistics, as the closest concrete plant was more than an hour away. Instead, crews mobilized two ready-mix concrete batch plants within two miles of the jobsite, supplementing cast-in-place elements with precast concrete pieces, which together kept the project on schedule.

The hotel and casino’s superstructure is made up of four primary materials: 8,000 cu yd of cast-in-place concrete, 527 pieces of precast concrete shipped to the site, structural steel and load bearing light gauge wall panels. Hensel Phelps self-performed a significant amount of the cast-in-place concrete work, saving the project money while maintaining the ambitious schedule.

Photo courtesy Hensel Phelps and Moss Photography

Because Cripple Creek is a semi-isolated mountain community, there are specific requirements for transporting materials in and out of the town due to proximity of residential areas, limited road infrastructure and the challenges posed by high-altitude winter conditions.

The city of Cripple Creek allowed Hensel Phelps to shut down a single street during weekdays to ensure pedestrian safety and facilitate material movement and laydown without disrupting the traffic flow.

As the superstructure was to be built over the course of several months, the team took care to ensure that building components and materials were able to be transported to the site while remaining at a safe distance from residential areas.

The project team held daily safety meetings with onsite workers, who numbered more than 300 at peak.

Because of the extensive array of materials and craftworkers on site, the project team hired a third-party consultant to create a specific in-house quality control process for the project. This included a comprehensive building envelope checklist and a dedicated Hensel Phelps superintendent to oversee the building’s exterior—including testing protocols and coordinating teams—on a full-time basis.

The initiative’s success has led Hensel Phelps to plan to implement this process on projects across the country, the firm says.