| |
LEGOLAND Florida Coming Together, Piece by Piece
LEGOLAND FLORIDA AT FORMER CYPRESS GARDENS
By Gary White
THE LEDGER
Jan. 9, 2011
WINTER HAVEN - LEGOLAND Florida will aim to stimulate children’s imaginations,
yet at the moment it takes some imagination to envision a world-class theme park
arising from what is largely a rolling expanse of bare dirt.
Where a 40-foot castle will stand, a grid of steel bars and a foundation of gray
cinder blocks provide a basic outline.
Two linked circles of flattened clay inside a wooden framework hint at what will
be a pool in which children will race around on jet boats.
Near the park’s north end, a cement slab bordered by curving, 42-inch wooden
walls offers a glimpse of what will be an artificial pond for more gentle
boating experiences.
With nine months until the planned opening of LEGOLAND Florida, general manager
Adrian Jones said construction is proceeding on schedule.
“We are on budget and on time,” Jones said.
Merlin Entertainments Group, LEGOLAND corporate owner, bought the former Cypress
Gardens property last January for a reported $22.3 million, designating it to be
the world’s fifth LEGOLAND park. Last August, LEGOLAND selected PCL Construction
Services as lead contractor for construction work. PCL, headquartered in Denver
with an office in Orlando, has overseen construction of the Wizarding World of
Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort and the Jungala exhibit at Busch
Gardens.
Employees from PCL and sub-contractors, wearing bright-green shirts and hard
hats, toiled throughout the 150-acre property Wednesday afternoon. At the
foundation for the Dragon Coaster, an indoor-outdoor roller coaster that passes
through a castle, workers hammered steel reinforcing bars into place and used a
power saw to slice up cinder blocks. Masons from a fittingly named
sub-contractor, Castle Construction, fitted cinder blocks into the footing of
the castle, which will be visible from Old Helena Road to the east.
In what will be the Land of Adventure, a worker pushed a plate compactor to
smooth out dirt in preparation for pouring the cement floor of the AquaZone Wave
Racer ride.
LOCAL CONTRACTOR
A local company, Tucker Construction and Engineering of Winter Haven, is working
as a direct contractor for LEGOLAND. Mark Atterson, a project manager, said
Tucker is doing renovations to “back of house” buildings that LEGOLAND Florida
will use for facilities, maintenance and administration.
Atterson said Tucker Paving, a division of the company, is doing demolition and
other work as a sub-contractor for PCL. He said Tucker has had 20 to 25
employees on site in recent days and will be working at the property until the
summer.
Jones, the general manager, previously oversaw the opening of Madame Toussads
Hollywood and construction of the LEGOLAND Discover Center in Illinois. As Jones
sat in his modular office at the property’s south end Wednesday afternoon, a
10-foot long architect’s overall master plan for the 150-acre property was taped
up on a wall.
Tacked to the wall beside it was an aerial photograph of Cypress Gardens,
LEGOLAND predecessor attraction, showing red, yellow and white flowers in full
bloom.
Jones said he hung the vintage photo as a reminder to himself of the property’s
heritage and his quest to imbue LEGOLAND Florida with unique visual appeal.
“We want this to be the most beautiful LEGOLAND in the world,” Jones said.
“That’s already impacting everything we do. We’re making decisions with that in
mind.”
As an example, Jones said he had ordered a change in the design of the parking
area to save two trees.
TREES MOVED
LEGOLAND commitment to maintaining flora is apparent elsewhere on the property.
Crews will relocate some 660 trees during construction, many of them mature oak
trees that must be dug up and replanted the same day to ensure survival. Mature
oaks can weigh 65 tons and can have root-balls 14 feet across, said Craig
Riebel, LEGOLAND construction supervisor.
One such move occurred Wednesday. An oak dangled in the air, its root-ball
saddled in ropes held by the 200-foot boom of a crane. Workers were moving the
oak a short distance in the south end of the park, the area to be called The
Beginning.
Other trees on the property were surrounded by orange webbing and signs that
read, “Tree Protection Zone.”
Workers have relocated several trees from an expanse near the center of the
property that will become Miniland USA, the heart of the attraction. Miniland
will feature replicas of national and local landmarks constructed from millions
of LEGO bricks.
Jones said landscaping around Miniland is nearly completely, and the cement base
will be poured in the next few weeks. He said Legoland employees at other sites
are already building the Miniland models, which will be delivered and installed
in a few months.
Jones said the first model builders based at LEGOLAND Florida will arrive soon.
He said the builders will devote themselves to setting up a shop, in which they
will eventually construct models from LEGO bricks to be used throughout the park
and in marketing efforts.
MANY BUILDINGS STAY, BUT REDONE
LEGOLAND Florida will retain many buildings from Cypress Gardens, though many of
them are being thoroughly renovated. Jones said all of the restaurants and
restrooms have been gutted, in some cases down to the bare frames. Some
buildings, particularly around the former Cypress Gardens radio museum, have
been demolished to reduce congestion.
The new owners have removed many of the Cypress Gardens amusement rides, but two
major structures remain: the wooden Triple Hurricane roller coaster, to be
renamed Coastersaurus, and the Swamp Thing suspended metal roller coaster, to be
renamed Flying School.
Jones said the wooden coaster’s five cars have been sent elsewhere to be
refurbished.
During the construction, LEGOLAND is reusing 18,000 tons of concrete from
sidewalks and foundations of Cypress Gardens. A contractor is using a 15-ton
machine to pulverize the concrete, which is being used as a base layer for new
sidewalks.
At the less visible level, Jones said crews are replacing outdated pipes and
wires and installing a fiber-optic communications network throughout the park.
High wooden walls line the perimeter of the property, and access is tightly
restricted. Water access from Lake Eloise makes it difficult to seal the
property completely, especially at night, but Jones said LEGOLAND is adding more
security guards and installing video cameras to prevent intrusions that could
create liability issues.
HIRING IN SPRING
LEGOLAND has about 60 employees working on the property, mostly in
administration, landscaping and operations jobs. LEGOLAND expects to employ
about 1,000 people, but Jones said most of the hiring won’t take place before
late spring.
Jones praised Winter Haven and Polk County officials for quickly approving
construction permits.
“The community and county have been absolutely amazing,” Jones said. “I think
the county commissioners need commending on how efficient and helpful they’ve
been. I say that with my experience in working on other projects in other
cities. This has been the best example of how a city has been extremely
helpful.”
theledger.com
-end of report-
|
|
1 Message in This Thread:
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
