CityCenter Building Structures Without Approved Plans

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- As reported by the Las Vegas Sun: "In hundreds of instances, construction at MGM Mirage's massive CityCenter project has moved forward based on unapproved engineering, a Sun
MGM MIRAGE CityCenter  review of reports issued by private inspectors at the work site shows.

In those cases, inspectors on the project reported that contractors were working from last-minute drawings that affected the structural integrity of the building but had not been approved by the county. In some cases, the engineer of record also had not approved the drawings.

County inspectors regularly review the inspectors' reports — called "noncompliance reports" — to make sure the entire project is ultimately built to code despite unapproved fixes, county spokesman Dan Kulin said.

By the time the project is finished, all plans should be retroactively approved so the practice of building based on yet-to-be-approved plans shouldn't lead to unsafe buildings, Kulin emphasized.

Yet the practice is the inverse of how the process is supposed to work: Officially, the county requires that all engineering changes be approved and stamped before that portion of construction begins.

"This is a situation where the contractor or owner is taking a risk, and we're certainly seeing that the process documents when they're deviating from the approved plans," Kulin said. "If it doesn't comply with code, they'll end up having to go back to make additional modifications."

In the past year, the Harmon and two Veer towers at CityCenter encountered significant structural problems that required major engineering changes.

Last month, MGM Mirage announced that it would top off the Harmon at about half its planned height because of the belated discovery of 15 floors of problematic rebar, as well as economic concerns..."