Original subtitles

Narrator: Towering 550 feet high over las vegas,

This is north america's largest observation wheel,

The high roller.

Because of building in vegas,

It requires you to build the biggest and the best.

Narrator: Las vegas's most popular attraction must keep turning

In order to give the thousands of tourists

Who travel to this city the ride of their lives.

It's going to be a busy, busy night.

How did engineers build this mega wheel in the sky?

And how does it deliver

One of the most spectacular views in the world?

We wanted our guests to feel like

They were floating in space.

Narrator: We unlock the engineering secrets

That help the high roller wow the crowds,

From its one-of-a-kind single rim

To ingenious spherical cabins

That stay perfectly level through every rotation,

To reveal what it takes to build the ultimate observation wheel.

-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

Both: Welcome to las vegas!

♪

With its bright lights, hotels, and casinos, sin city

Is one of the most famous travel destinations in the world.

40 million tourists head to the city

That never sleeps to gamble, watch spectacular shows,

And take in the glitz and glamour of the town.

They spend close to $35 billion each year.

And the competition between hotel casinos

Vying for a bigger share of the profits is fierce,

Building more spectacular attractions

To draw in larger crowds.

♪

To stand out,

Caesars entertainment decided to build big.

They constructed this --

♪

The las vegas high roller.

Costing $300 million to build,

This mega structure now defines the las vegas skyline.

♪

It's built to revolutionary design...

And requires a team of skilled mechanics to keep it moving...

In an effort to provide adventure seekers

With unrivaled views of the city.

The high roller is loaded with innovative technology

Hidden under the hood to help wow the crowds

And give them an unforgettable experience.

♪

28 temperature-controlled spherical cabins

Stay perfectly level as the wheel spins.

Its unique, single-rim design provides unobstructed,

360-degree views across las vegas.

And a mighty hydraulic arm comes to the rescue

If the power goes out.

All these elements combine to make the high roller

The ultimate observation wheel.

General manager eric eberhart led the team

Tasked with making the high roller a reality.

Because of building in vegas, it requires you to build

The biggest and the best and offer something the guests

Cannot experience anywhere else in the world.

We really pushed our designers and engineers

To create a world-class attraction that's unique

And push the boundaries of observation wheels.

Narrator: It's spring break.

An estimated 800,000 people will descend on vegas

Looking for a good time.

And this long weekend promises to test this wheel's

Strength and revolutionary design.

The wheel must complete 130 rotations,

Each taking 30 minutes,

And carry thousands of people over the next four days...

Stopping for just six hours each night for critical maintenance.

Breakdowns will damage caesars' reputation

And potentially drive away visitors eager

To spend their money at the casino's gambling tables.

So the pressure is on.

♪

Thursday, 8:00 p.M.

The first night of the long-weekend rush begins.

High roller's entrance hall fills with tourists eager

To glimpse the wonder of las vegas at night.

The first challenge for building a wheel this big

Is how to keep the 550-foot-tall mega-wheel framework stable.

The narrow single-rim frame doesn't look tough enough

To support its 7.3-million-pound

Steel structure.

High roller's strength is the result

Of a ground-breaking innovation built into its dna.

1893.

Engineer george ferris unveils the world's first great wheel

At the chicago world's fair.

♪

To keep the wheel strong but lean,

Ferris pioneers a spoke design

That becomes the blueprint for almost all later wheels,

Including the high roller.

The cables hold up the bottom half of the rim.

Their tension pulls the rim inwards.

This allows the top half to support itself,

Like the arch of a bridge.

These two forces work together to keep the entire rim strong

And rigid as the wheel rotates.

But erecting a structure this tall

And thin is a unique construction challenge.

♪

If engineers build high roller from the bottom up,

The cables support half the wheel's structure.

But building the top half unsupported will over-stress

The rim and trigger a structural collapse.

♪

One solution is to support the wheel

With a scaffold 550 feet tall.

But scaffolding this narrow is unstable.

Its footprint needs to cover a huge area

To stop it from falling over.

Additionally, framework this massive would encroach

On neighboring roads and buildings.

How do you build north america's tallest wheel

Without building the continent's largest scaffold?

Project manager randy printz must find the solution.

Logistically, this was a very challenging project.

We've got two major hotels that had to remain in operation.

We had to keep a roadway in operation

Because it was an emergency fire access

Throughout this entire project.

Narrator: Randy's only option is to build high roller vertically,

But with one critical modification.

♪

His team deploys an innovative solution

To stop the wheel from collapsing under its own weight

As they build upwards.

♪

First, they fix a pair of 223-foot-long metal struts

To the wheel's central spindle.

Then they attach the first 53-foot-long section

Of the rim...

And the cable spokes.

Next, powerful hydraulic jacks

Push the completed segment around by 13 degrees.

Engineers then repeat the process,

Joining together more struts, rims, sections, and cables.

The rotating wheel stays rigid and stable

As it's assembled segment by segment.

♪

Once all 28 rim sections are in place,

Engineers fit and tension

The last of the wheel's 112 steel cables.

They remove the struts one by one...

Until the wheel supports its own weight on the central spindle.

When that last strut came out, I think it validated

For all of us the designers' vision.

There you had this purely circular form

Redefining the vegas skyline.

And we went, "wow."

♪

Narrator: Today the high roller is a las vegas landmark,

Visible from anywhere in the city.

On the first night of spring break,

The high roller carries thousands of people

Visiting sin city for the long weekend.

But a new day brings new challenges

The super wheel must face.

How does this monster machine

Stand up to damaging desert winds?

And what is the engineering secret that gives

The wheel spectacular, near-unobstructed views?

♪

♪

Narrator: It's Friday morning in las vegas,

The second day of one of the city's busiest weekends --

Spring break.

The high roller observation wheel

Takes over a million tourists a year on rides above the city,

And passenger numbers are especially high

During busy holidays.

Everybody stepping aboard is a potential customer

For caesars palace hotel and casino.

So the wheel must deliver the ride of their lives.

We always wanted to make the high roller

The biggest and the best in the world.

We were somewhat limited.

The major international airport, mccarran,

Is less than five miles from here,

So the federal aviation administration limited

The height that we could go to.

So we took it right to the limit of 550 feet.

Narrator: Size is just one objective for high roller's designers.

The bigger reward is to make engineering history

By building the first wheel in the world with unobstructed,

360-degree views from every spherical cabin...

♪

At every point of rotation.

All big observation wheels,

From ferris' original to the singapore flyer,

Are actually two wheels bolted together.

25-foot-wide trusses join the two rims of the london eye.

This means, for most of the rotation,

The wheel's physical structure blocks passengers' sight line

From one side of the capsule.

Only when a capsule reaches the very top do visitors inside

Enjoy an uninterrupted view.

♪

To accomplish the dream of near-unobstructed views,

High roller's engineers simply removed one entire rim

And all the trusses.

Eberhart: We eliminated most of the visual obtrusions

To really give you the sensation of floating.

And it gives you a full 360-degree view.

Narrator: The effect is a big hit with spring-break vacationers.

But building the observation wheel with just one rim

Leaves this giant vulnerable to the forces of nature.

The traditional two-rim design of wheels like the london eye

Make their structure stiff.

It's this stiffness that keeps these wheels

Rigid in strong winds.

[ wind blowing ]

Removing one rim reduces stability.

In strong winds, there's a big risk

A single-rim design could flex.

The bending wheel could hit critical infrastructure...

And over-stress its cables to the point where they snap

And risk a catastrophic collapse.

♪

Las vegas sits in a valley in the mojave desert.

This dry, sandy region leaves the city vulnerable

To strong winds.

High roller's team monitors the speed of the wind

From this dedicated control room.

Good.

Can you pull up the weather so we can check it

Real quickly, please?

Sure.

Low wind speeds today. That's good.

The days preceding this weekend, we had quite high wind gusts

Coming through the las vegas alley.

Some gusts were as high as 60 miles an hour.

Narrator: In theory, winds this fast could fracture

A single-rim wheel...

And shatter the illusion of floating on air.

♪

To eliminate the natural flex in a single-rim design,

High roller's engineers devise a creative solution.

They extend the length of the central spindle to 98 feet...

Nearly 4 times the size of the spindle on the london eye.

This widens the angle at which the cables pull on the rim

From either side, just like the guy ropes

On a guy ropes on a triangular tent.

The longer central spindle makes the high roller as rigid

In high winds as traditional double-rim wheel design.

The wheel may stand firm in undesirable weather,

But strong wind gusts still have the potential

To ruin the experience for the thousands of tourists

Riding high roller this holiday weekend.

Wind vibrates the tubular legs

That support modern observation wheels.

This movement can rock the rim, shake the capsules,

And make passengers nervous and sick.

Hidden inside the support legs is high roller's secret

For beating the unpleasant motion

To guarantee a smooth ride every time.

Any sudden movement is gonna detract from this experience

Of basically serenely floating in the air

As you go around and look at las vegas.

We needed to do whatever we could to make

That experience as smooth as possible.

Narrator: Engineers fit special devices called tuned mass dampeners

To combat vibrations.

Each of the 13 dampeners

Consists of a weight of up to 132 pounds

Suspended by cables, attached to tuned springs.

Together, they counteract vibrations caused by wind

And give passengers the sensation of floating on air.

By 2:00 p.M. On Friday, this windproof wheel

Has spun hundreds of spring-break tourists

High above vegas and the mojave desert.

It's amazing.

I mean, I did get the butterflies

In the stomach a little bit.

I've gambled and lost a lot of money.

When you go out, you enjoy some good food.

But this is totally different than anything

That I've done in vegas.

Narrator: As the sun sets on sin city,

Friday night promises to bring even larger crowds.

How did engineers build this huge structure

To fit in the middle of crowded real estate?

And what is the engineering secret for turning

A 7.3-million-pound mega wheel?

♪

♪

Narrator: 8:00 p.M., Friday night in las vegas.

Tonight high roller must spin close to full capacity,

Carrying over 1,000 passengers every 30-minute rotation.

It must keep turning to draw crowds,

Driving business to caesars' restaurants and casinos

On one of the busiest long weekends of the year.

As darkness descends, las vegas lights up,

And so does this city's big wheel.

♪

The wheel is lit with more than 2,000 l.E.D.S

That create visually stunning displays,

Turning the wheel into a beacon visible

From anywhere in the city.

Obviously, las vegas is the city of lights,

And there was no doubt

That we had to put on a very special show

When we opened up the high roller.

Narrator: At this point in the long weekend,

This 550-foot-tall wheel has completed 72 rotations

And carried thousands of tourists.

♪

A wheel this high must stay perfectly vertical

At all times to run smoothly.

High roller must have a rock-solid foundation,

Or there's a risk the mighty metal ring

Could come crashing down.

♪

Traditional wheels stand on a-frame structures

Angled outwards.

The guarantee stability by spreading the wheel's weight

Over a bigger area

And lowering the structure's center of gravity.

But to build wide legs, you need space,

And space is in short supply in this part of vegas.

High roller's construction site

Is located in the middle of prime real estate.

It sits in an area crammed with obstruction --

A nearly 205,000-square-foot retail development,

The intersection of two busy roads,

And a section of las vegas' raised monorail.

These obstacles restrict high roller's engineers

To a construction footprint of only 213 feet by 72 feet.

The problem is, no matter how they position the high roller,

The giant wheel cannot fit on the site

Without hitting a building

Or standing in the middle of the road.

Borrowing design elements from other famous observation wheels

Is not an option.

21st-century wheels like the london eye

And singapore flyer stand in less cluttered areas,

With space to stretch their legs.

Engineers must come up with a solution

To fit high roller inside its tiny footprint.

They turn the wheel's legs to angle inward

So they touch the ground

Within a narrow 15,400-square-foot area.

The wheel is solid along its north/south axis.

But its narrow stance makes it unstable

Along its east/west access.

Engineers build an ingenious fifth leg

Out from the central spindle to secure the wheel.

It reaches over the neighboring road

And touches down in a nearby parking lot.

Five points of contact with the ground

Gives high roller perfect balance.

♪

Once workers complete its foundations in mid-2012,

It takes another two years

To finish the wheel's mighty structure.

In order to complete the high roller on time and on budget,

It had to be a very well-choreographed operation.

Printz: We literally had parts and pieces

Coming from all over the world --

Steel from china, glass from the cabins from Italy.

We had to coordinate an enormous amount of material

Coming into this site,

Getting brought in just at the right time.

Narrator: It takes over 25,000 feet of cables,

Over 4 million pounds of steel tubes, 28 capsules,

Each weighing over 59,000 pounds,

And a workforce of 600

To construct the ultimate observation wheel.

Building anything on this scale, it's quite an endeavor

And quite challenging, but it is also extremely rewarding.

♪

Narrator: By the end of Friday night, the super-stable high roller

Has spun thousands of spring-break vacationers.

But tomorrow promises to be the busiest day of the long weekend.

What innovation will drive

The 7.3-million-pound wheel nonstop for 16 hours?

And what's the secret to keeping high roller turning

Even when the power goes out?

♪

♪

Narrator: In las vegas, the high roller has spun thousands of people

Over the first 48 hours during one of the most

Popular travel times -- spring break.

During the off-season,

Rider numbers can double over the weekends.

This Saturday evening promises to be even busier.

♪

Operations director carolyn gargiulo's job

Is to ensure the wheel's ready to meet the demand.

Gargiulo: It is a Saturday night, which is typically extremely busy

For the high roller,

And we have a private event on top of that

And then, of course, our general-admission guests.

It's going to be a busy, busy night.

We will be stressed to our max and pushed to our limits.

Narrator: Tonight high roller must spin close to 1,100 people

Every half-hour rotation.

Driving the vertically mounted 7.3-million-pound

Nonstop mega wheel is a huge engineering challenging.

The center of the wheel is the obvious location for a motor,

But rotating high roller from its spindle

Is a recipe for disaster.

The huge torque required to move the mega wheel

Could snap high roller's cables.

The solution is to power the wheel from its rim,

Which reduces the load on the cables

And create an innovative,

State-of-the-art propulsion system.

Unlike other observation wheels,

Engineers deploy a rugged propulsion system

To keep high roller constantly moving.

Eight units fitted with four large truck tires

Pinch shafts attached to both sides of the rim.

A 127-horsepower motor powers each tire unit

To drive the wheel around.

It's critical the system works flawlessly to cope

With the crowds during this high-demand weekend.

Printz: Reliability is key for this attraction.

One of the critical elements in maintaining this reliability

Is the maintenance that has to take place every night,

365 days a year.

Narrator: At 2:00 a.M., the wheel closes,

And high roller's dedicated maintenance team gets busy.

Senior mechanic david pinkerton must ensure the tires and motors

For the propulsion system are in perfect condition.

Pinkerton: When we're checking the tires, we're looking for cracks,

We're looking for bubbles, we're looking for low tread,

We're looking for low tire pressure.

Alright, josh, let off a little bit.

Looks good there, josh.

Narrator: David and his team must complete all repairs

During this downtime.

Failing tires while the wheel is running

Could force high roller to shut down

And seriously damage its reputation.

So, it's all done? All the tires are good?

Yep. They're clear.

Once the tires are ready to roll,

The team checks the motors.

If any of them fail, the big wheel has built-in redundancy

To keep turning at its normal speed of one foot per second.

We run with all eight drive units at one time.

We could operate with six drive units.

If we lose two more drive units after that,

Then we're in half-speed.

Narrator: In case of a power failure, high roller's engineers

Have built in a backup generator to keep the motors running.

But there's always the risk an unexpected event

Could cut both electric and diesel power

And bring the big wheel to a grinding halt.

♪

In the unlikely event the high roller loses all power,

It can fall back on an ingenious failsafe.

Two independent diesel motors power a pair

Of 10-foot-long hydraulic arms.

The front arms grip the wheel's rim and push it around.

At the same time, two back arms extend,

Grip the rim, and pull the wheel.

Repeating the sequence rotates the wheel smoothly.

Using this system, workers can rescue

All of high roller's passengers in just two hours.

♪

David and his team test the system

To ensure it will work in the worst-case scenario.

♪

The hydraulically powered arms spring into action.

They grab the wheel and pull it around.

The system works without a hitch.

It's Saturday night of the long spring-break weekend,

And the party is in full swing.

Five minutes left, guys! Five minutes!

[ cheers ]

High roller is going strong.

With only 24 hours left until the end of the weekend,

The wheel must deliver a spectacular experience

Every ride to keep wowing the crowd.

What ingenious technologies help the spherical cabin

Stay perfectly level at every point of high roller's rotation?

♪

Narrator: It's 10:00 a.M., Sunday morning,

The last day of the long spring-break weekend.

Eager tourists line up for las vegas' star attraction --

The high roller.

♪

Over the next 15 hours, it must fly thousands more people

Above the city's world-famous skyline.

♪

Currently, the temperature this morning

Is a pleasant 77 degrees,

But that can change quickly in the desert.

And ensuring this wheel can survive

Las vegas's extreme climate

Is a huge challenge for high roller's engineers.

In spring, the temperature can reach a steamy 95 degrees.

If made from regular glass, temperatures this hot will turn

The high roller's 28 spherical cabins

Into mini greenhouses, frying their occupants.

So the wheel's designers build in the ultimate

See-through barrier to beat the heat.

A special coating reduces the penetration

Of the sun's energy into the cabins.

Hand-made double-paned glass stops heat radiation

From passing into the interior.

Another challenge facing the wheel's engineers

Is how to create the sensation of floating in the sky.

It's critical the capsule stay perfectly level

At every point in the high roller's rotation.

The cabins on early ferris wheels hang from axles

Attached to the rim.

These pivots rely on gravity to keep the cabins level.

But this design makes for a rocky ride.

♪

Traditional cabins move freely around the axles

That suspend them from the wheel frame.

This leaves the passengers inside vulnerable

To feeling every bump caused by the wheel's turning mechanism...

And puts the cabins at the mercy of strong winds.

Both factors provide an uncomfortable experience.

And for most of the ride, the structure of the wheel

Itself obstructs the view from the cabins.

♪

To solve these problems, high roller's designers

Take gravity out of the equation.

They use support struts called v-legs to fix each cabin

To the outside of the rim.

But doing this has the potential

To jeopardize the passenger experience.

Fixed cabins will turn upside down

As the wheel turns 360 degrees.

To solve the problem, engineers grip each cabin

With an ingenious gear system.

As the high roller spins in one direction...

The cabins rotate in the opposite direction

To stay level.

To make sure the cabins turn exactly the right amount

Relative to the big wheel, engineers fit each one

With a toothed, 17-foot-long ring.

An attachment arm connects the ring to a cog.

As the wheel turns, the cog's teeth turn the cabin ring.

This makes sure that every cabin always stays level,

No matter where it is on the wheel.

The system means engineers can mount the cabin

On the wheel's exterior.

This guarantees passengers can experience spectacular,

Uninterrupted views of las vegas.

Eberhart: One of the best ways to find out if you're actually moving

Or turning is to watch the relationship to the v-leg.

Here, the v-leg is holding us by the side.

When we first loaded, it was supporting us from the top.

And when we were at the top of the ride,

We were actually sitting on top of the v-leg.

So, as you're making your trip around,

Not only is the cabin doing a 360-degree turn.

The wheel on the rim itself is doing a 360-degree turn.

Narrator: Every year, high roller spins over a million visitors

Above sin city inside its perfectly leveled,

Temperature-controlled spherical cabins.

Whoo-hoo!

1:00 p.M., Sunday.

The long spring-break weekend is coming to an end.

Over the past 60 hours, the 7.3-million-pound wheel

Has completed over 100 full rotations.

But with a late passenger surge expected this evening,

It can't afford to break down now.

What near-frictionless engineering

Keeps this wheel turning?

And what stops damaging desert sand

From bringing it to a grinding halt?

♪

♪

Narrator: It's Sunday afternoon in las vegas.

The spring-break long weekend is almost over.

In the last 72 hours, the mighty high roller wheel

Has spun thousands of tourists over sin city.

♪

Rotating around its 98-foot-long spindle continuously

For 16 hours is an epic engineering feat

For an observation wheel this large.

The rim, capsules, cables, and hub

Weigh 7.3 million pounds, equivalent to 15 blue whales.

♪

This much weight turning on the spindle

Creates massive friction.

Metal grinding on metal risks

Catastrophic mechanical breakdowns.

It's critical the moving metal parts slip past each other

With the least amount of friction possible.

In early 2013, engineers installed a pair

Of 7.5-foot-long roller bearings.

Each one locks 60 free-moving roller elements

Within two steel rings.

They sealed the 19,800-pound bearings

Inside the 16-foot-tall steel cable anchors.

A giant crane lifted each one 260 feet off the ground

To their final positions on the support legs.

The installation of the bearings, hub,

And spindle took two months to complete.

♪

The high roller's desert location creates a major problem

For machines with big moving parts.

Strong winds blow sand and dust across las vegas.

If these abrasive particles build up inside

The roller bearings,

They will damage the engineered metal components...

And the wheel could come to a grinding halt.

♪

Mechanic bryan arellanos is responsible

For keeping the mighty bearings clean.

During crucial maintenance shifts,

Brian and a co-worker ascend 270 ladder steps...

Into the very heart of the wheel.

Right now we're actually inside of the hub of the high roller.

This is a static spindle that stays still.

On the other side of this seal is the bearing itself

That's connected to the hub.

And if the wheel were to be moving right now,

We'd be rotating with the hub itself.

Narrator: High roller's secret to beating the grit is grease --

And lots of it.

Every day, automatic pumps inject 2.2 pounds

Of lubrication grease into the sealed

Housing containing the roller bearings.

This constant flow of grease flushes out any particles

That could grind the metal components.

If the oozing grease contains foreign particles,

Bryan knows the roller bearing's seal is broken and needs fixing.

All around us is the bearing, and this system right here

Is where our grease pump pumps the grease into.

And this is where the excess grease gets flushed out.

Narrator: The team regularly sends samples of grease

To a laboratory for inspection.

But bryan is the first line of defense.

We do check it every week,

And if we can see something with our naked eye,

We know there's an issue with the high roller.

We don't see any kind of foreign material in there.

We don't see any air pockets.

And overall it looks pretty good.

♪

Narrator: 5:00 p.M., Sunday.

A rush of last-minute riders board the high roller.

The mighty wheel is on its final leg of this epic long weekend.

We had a very successful weekend thanks to our team.

Because we were fortunate enough to create a las vegas icon,

Now the pressure is on us to make sure we maintain it

And continue to operate for the next 50-plus years.

Narrator: High roller soars higher, works harder,

And carries more passengers

Than any other wheel in north america.

Built into its huge frame are a series of engineering marvels

That make it the pinnacle of observation-wheel design.

Innovative building techniques make construction possible

Within a crowded urban landscape.

The unique support frame anchors the mighty structure

To a tiny footprint.

The one-of-a-kind, single-rim design

Stays rigid in the strong desert winds.

A diesel-powered hydraulic arm keeps the wheel turning

If the electricity fails.

Precisely geared temperature-controlled cabins

Stay perfectly level around every rotation.

The high roller is built to be the ultimate mega wheel.

♪