In November 2017, ground breaking begun on a 62-acre plot of land just west of the Las Vegas Strip to make way for a $2.3 billion, 1.75 million-square-foot, 65,000-seat (expandable to 72,000), ultra-modern domed stadium for the Raiders NFL Football Team. The Stadium will also serve as the site of the Las Vegas Bowl as well as the Pac-12 Football Championship and other high-profile events beginning in 2020.
Utelite Corporation in Coalville, UT is playing a key role in assisting with technical support and supplying high quality expanded shale lightweight aggregate material meeting the requirements of ASTM C330 for the stadium’s precast elements along with metal decking cast-in-place structural lightweight concrete.
According to the design engineers, the use of structural lightweight concrete was considered and specified early in the design process as the boundaries were pushed of what design and engineering could achieve on this ultra-modern state-of-the-art stadium. Innovative design flexibility, improved seismic structural response, superior performance, greater economy and structural lightweight concrete was the solution. In addition, the joint venture team was also very open-minded and supportive of utilizing structural lightweight concrete to reduce the overall seismic loads of the structure as well as offering a UL 2-hour fire rating.
All factors considered, structural lightweight concrete was the clear choice. Structural lightweight concrete made with rotary-kiln produced expanded shale lightweight aggregates is typically 25% to 35% lighter than normal concrete and provides significant greater economy when systems are designed with equal fire resistance ratings.
“It’s been a total team approach between Utelite, the concrete producer, and the pump company to successfully pour nearly 20,000 cu. yds. of 6,000 PSI @ 28-day structural lightweight concrete on this project with minimal concrete issues on the project. Proper aggregate saturation, stockpile management, and sound quality control procedures are essential to minimize pumping concerns and to insure the structural lightweight concrete mix adhered to the stringent concrete specifications on such a high-profile project,” said Utelite’s Darren Medeiros.
“Our customers see the value-added benefits of saving roughly 15% of their total freight cost when purchasing Utelite material in its ’dry’ state verses purchasing ’pre-saturated’ lightweight material,” Medeiros explained. “Not only are Utelite customers saving 15% on their total freight costs but they’re also getting roughly 15% more material in each truck because our customers are not purchasing water. Utelite materials may be atmospherically saturated unlike many other lightweight materials. Customers can simply saturate the material themselves onsite. Saving 15% on your freight bill along with getting nearly 15% more material per truck load is a no brainer to our customers. In a single 40/t truck load of pre-saturated lightweight material, our customers would be shorted by almost 8 yards of material due to water added pre-delivery. That’s a lot of lost revenue and profit. Utelite recommends at least 36-hours of constant saturation, usually via sprinkling, to adequately conditions the material to its saturated state, when placement by concrete pump is called for. If the project is delayed, simply turn the water off. When the delay has passed, turn it back on and re- saturate the material. Utelite materials can easily be re-saturated when needed, unlike materials that require vacuum or thermal saturation.”
The Allegiant Stadium is slated to be completed for the 2020 NFL football season.