By Cindy RileyCEG CORRESPONDENT

A highly anticipated construction project that has had itsshare of ups and downs is now complete in downtownAtlanta. A 20-story tall Ferris wheel, known as SkyviewAtlanta, is open for business at the south end of CentennialOlympic Park.“The wheel itself is 180 feet high, but when you include

the platform it sits upon and our preparation of the site, flierswill be approximately 200 feet off the ground,” said JasonEvans, spokesman of Skyview Atlanta. “The project hasexcited the city so much. The media has been beating downmy door, constantly wanting more information about howthe construction was going, and when we expected to open.”The steel structure features 42 gondolas that can hold up

to six people. Each enclosed bucket offers heat and air-con-ditioning, a panic button connected to an intercom, and non-reflective glass for taking photographs and recording video.The ride includes four rotations and takes about 15 minutes.Equipped with one million multi-colored LED lights, theattraction was originally scheduled to debut just days beforethe July 4th holiday. Unfortunately, the start datehad to be pushed back, despite crews workingextended hours to try and meet the originaldeadline.“The main challenges were schedule, weath-

er and existing conditions,” said Brent Benson,project manager of Civil Site Services Inc. “Ourcompany was responsible for the excavation,haul off, import of stone, concrete and asphalt.We also installed fencing for privacy.”According to Benson the space is very com-

pact, and totals less than 5,000 sq. ft. (464.5 sqm) of disturbed area. Crews had to excavateroughly 6 ft. (1.8 m) into the ground for a totalof six footings. They averaged 5 ft. (1.52 m)wide by 20 ft. (6 m) long. The team excavatedfor the footings, demolished the existing park-ing lot, installed an underground detention sys-tem, poured concrete footings, built a concretedeck for the customers, installed hand rails andinstalled wood dunnage for the ride to sit on. Inaddition crews hauled 18 tons (16.3 t) of mulchfor the landscaping and paved areas that werenot covered up by the ride.“We hauled off roughly 750 cubic yards of

dirt,” said Benson. “To replace the dirt, webrought in approximately 600 tons of stone. We

had good compacted material for the footings to rest on. Wealso poured approximately 65 cubic yards of concrete for thestabilization of the ride. We used 1,500 linear feet of 6 inchby 6 inch by 10 feet oak timbers for the water ballast to reston and level the ride up.”To carry out the variety of tasks, crews relied on a Volvo

160 excavator to dig up the unsuitable dirt, a Cat 259 skidsteer to place stone back into the holes that were excavatedand a Cat 323 compactor to compact the stone that wastransported to the site. Workers used tandem dump trucks tomove the material to and from the job site and a RT82 trenchroller to compact the stone in the tighter areas.Crews had to install concrete pads for the ride to be stable,

according to Benson. At the start of the job, workers dis-covered there was a Georgia Power duct bank that ran acrossthe entire site, and caused a quick change in the design ofthe field. The duct bank was approximately one foot belowthe existing asphalt parking lot, and was two feet higher than

Atlanta Visitors, Residents Go Sky High on Skyview

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A 20-story tall ferris wheel, known as SkyviewAtlanta, is open for business at the south end of

Centennial Olympic Park.

Crews relied on a Volvo 160 excavator to dig up the unsuitabledirt, a Cat 259 skid steer to place stone back into the holes thatwere excavated and a Cat 323 compactor to compact the stonethat was transported to the site. see SKYVIEW page 6

September 42013

Vol. XV • No. 18

Page 2 • September 4, 2013 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Georgia State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide

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Page 4 • September 4, 2013 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Georgia State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide Construction Equipment Guide • Georgia State Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • September 4, 2013 • Page 5

Page 4 • September 4, 2013 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Georgia State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide Construction Equipment Guide • Georgia State Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • September 4, 2013 • Page 5

Page 6 • September 4, 2013 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Georgia State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide

planned footing elevation. “We raised the footing elevations by three

feet to clear the duct bank, so the ride would-n’t scrape the duct bank. Once we pouredour concrete to get the footings to the correctelevation, we had to install 1,500 linear feetof wood dunnage for the ride to rest on. Thewood dunnage allowed us to level the waterballast for the Ferris wheel. This keeps thebottom of the ride level.”Benson said the most time consuming

part of the process was the excavation of theunsuitable material. Importing the stone toreach a good solid surface for the ride to reston also was a tedious chore.Subs working on the site included

Dockery Group, in charge of forming andpouring the concrete. AMPM ConcreteCutting helped with the final demolition andLecraw Engineering assisted with the layout.Mullins Brothers Paving installed the finalcoat of asphalt. “This has been a very fast-paced con-

struction project,” said Evans. “If it wasn'tfor some unexpected delays , the time periodfrom start of construction to the wheel beingopened would be less than three weeks.”The historic steel wheel had to be disas-

sembled in Pensacola,Fla., where it spent thepast year. It was transported to Georgia inspecial shipping crates transported by 30tractor trailers.“It was originally in Paris on the Place de

la Concorde, across from the Louvre muse-um,” said Evans. “After that, it spent a shortperiod of time in Basil, Switzerland. Ourowners purchased it and brought it toPensacola. It was always their intent toquickly bring it to a bigger market, one thatwas less seasonal. It did just fine there, butwe expect to do much more business inAtlanta.”Assembling the wheel at its new location,

however, was no small feat, according toEvans.“It's like putting together the world’s

biggest Lego or erector set. The pieces are allready, you just have to fit them in the rightplace and connect them together. The waythey do that is largely through long screws orbolts. Some of these things are huge.” Michael Montgomery, general manager

of Skyview Atlanta, said crews installed thefinal spokes to complete the wheel just daysbefore the official opening. Setting up thesupport structure to raise the legs was a keypart of the process.“The legs had to be assembled and then a

275-ton crane was used. Once the legs werelifted and the center axle was put in, we hadto do adjustments to the support structuresand make sure everything was stable, thenstart adding weights and do the spoke

assembly. Each spoke is raised up to the cen-ter axle, pinned in and attachments are madeto the ends of the spokes. We basically builtthis in a pie shape. There are 21 spokes, sowe can carry 42 gondolas.”The support structure is held in place by

ballasts. There are six tanks, including a cen-ter ballast tank. Workers pumped about20,000 gallons of water on each side of thewheel to provide the necessary support. A 90-ton (81.6 t) Link Belt crane was used

for the assembly, according to Montgomery.It’s the only portable observation wheel ofthis size in North America. One of the

biggest challenges was bringing in 45 ft.(13.7 m) containers and navigating themthrough the streets of downtown Atlanta. “The public was very gracious in giving

us the space we needed to make those turns,said Montgomery. As for the actual assem-bly, this is such a precision machine, every-thing goes together. The design makes ourwork relatively easy, although many of theparts are very heavy.”The parts are coded to go in specific con-

tainers, and arrive in sequence. They havepieces ready for the first steps of assembly.Crews pull the parts, set in place, pin them

together and just keep going, according toMontgomery. Four electric motors are required to oper-

ate the wheel, and it will be inspected on adaily basis. For Montgomery, safety is a toppriority.“If something doesn't look right, I won’t

compromise and let the wheel go up, saidMontgomery. “My team is trained to inspect1,200 pins and clips, and that can take three-and-a-half hours.”Pensacola-based developers Todd

Schneider and Al Mers got the idea to bringa wheel to the United States a few years ago

while Schneider was vacationing overseasand spotted a giant wheel with a long line ofEuropean tourists waiting to ride it.Although his pitch was initially met withskepticism, Schneider convinced his busi-ness partner to sign on. About 50 new jobshave been created as a result of the project,ranging from cashiers and loaders to main-tenance personnel and wheel operators. “I hope people who take a flight on

SkyView will get a thrill out of seeingCentennial Olympic Park from above,” saidEvans. “So many cities place most of theirinteresting attractions in the suburbs. I thinkAtlanta is out of the ordinary in how muchdevelopment we are seeing in the downtownarea, and how much of that is aimed at enter-taining the people of the city and its visitors.”“A lot of blood, sweat and tears has gone

into this project, said Montgomery. “To seethe wheel turn for the very first time is aremarkable feeling. It's truly exhilarating.”

(This story also can be found onConstruction Equipment Guide’s Web site atwww.constructionequipmentguide.com.)CEG

Crews Install Final Spokes Days Before Official Opening

The wheel was transported to Atlanta in 30 trucks.

Crews take down the wheel in Pensacola, Fla.Crews had to excavate roughly 6 ft. (1.8 m) into the groundfor a total of six footings.

SKYVIEW from page 1

Construction Equipment Guide • Georgia State Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • September 4, 2013 • Page 7

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