Part of the new Horseshoe Casino Expansion project going on right now will include 2, 1700 ton barges that are currently under construction in a Louisiana Shipyard, and will be ready to be brought to the site some time in the early winter months.
A Houston based marine Construction company started the on the steel structures early in May. Each barge is 276 feet by 102 feet.
Before next summer the barges will be joined together with up to 4 other barges to make the base of a gigantic floating Casino. The new casino is being built by the Horseshoe owner which is Harrah’s Entertainment, and will cost approximately $485 million.
Building large floating platforms is not a new venture for the 83 year old company they make a large percentage of the oil and gas of shore rigs around the world.
But this project is the first of its kind for this company, who normally does not make platforms for casinos. One of the companies employees were quoted as saying that it was unusual for us to build something like this but it was lots of fun.
Another company is making 2 more barges in southern Indiana and the final 2 barges are being made in Texas. This was done to cut down on the construction time, and so far all the construction is on Schedule.
The first 2 barges are expected to be delivered early in January at the port of Indiana where it will be fitted with the vertical support beams before being moved to its final location at the Hammond marina.
The first two barges are expected to arrive sometime in January at the Port of Indiana at Burns Harbor.
All 6 of the barges will measure 564 feet long, 320 feet wide and 22 feet deep. When all 6 of the sections are joined together the interior work will begin.
They expect at this point that the Horseshoe will reopen its doors in the summer of 2008. The new casino will have a 170,000 square foot casino floor and twice the number of slots and table games that existed in the old Horseshoe casino.
