At 550 feet, the High Roller will be more than 100 feet taller than the 443-foot-tall London Eye, but only nine feet higher than the Singapore Flyer. (Both the Flyer and High Roller were overseen by Arup Engineering.) It will have a diameter of 520 feet, compared to the Eye’s 394 feet. It will carry 28 gondola cars (or "capsules,") compared to 32 on the Eye, on a wheel weighing 1.2 million of the structure’s 3.5 million pounds. Like the Eye, it will make one revolution every 30 minutes. The Eye’s gondolas carry 25 people apiece, compared to 40 each on the High Roller. In case you get bored with the view, there will be eight flat-screen TVs aboard, along with an iPod dock.
Several calls to Caesars failed to produce a response, but the project is ever-so-slightly behind schedule: The company originally expected to be done by late 2013, but according to KLAS-TV, the wheel will become operational in January 2014. The VitalVegas.com blog, which is believed to have sources within Caesars Entertainment, puts the completion in mid-2014. The final part of the rim was added earlier this week, with the addition of the passenger pods being the next major phase.
It is projected to have a lifespan of 50 years or 657,000 rotations, whichever comes first. As for the percentage of completion, we’ve not heard the 80 percent figure but -- eyeballing the High Roller, which we can clearly from our offices -- we’d say that sounds about right.
