Allegiant Stadium, the future home of NFL American football team the Oakland Raiders, will set a first by featuring the world’s largest 3D printed structure, developers of the Las Vegas venue have claimed.
The structure is being developed for an 85-foot-tall memorial torch dedicated to Al Davis, the late owner of the Raiders. Made from carbon fibre and aluminium, the Al Davis Memorial Torch will be the focal point of a 55,000-square-foot club area open to all ticket holders in the north end of the stadium.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal said the memorial will feature a special flame effect, unique to the structure. “That will literally be the largest 3D printed object in the world,” Las Vegas Stadium Co. chief operating officer Don Webb told the newspaper.
“Only two printers can do this and we have one back in Kansas City doing this right now. The reason it’s 3D printed is they can have absolutely flawless geometry to it. It’s complex geometry, it’s not a cylinder, it’s a swooping kind of thing. It’s a sculpture. In order to have that so it’s absolutely perfect you just can’t manipulate materials by hand without having some imperfections. So that’s why it’s being 3D printed.”
Earlier this week, the company spearheading the development claimed construction work at Allegiant Stadium remains on budget and on schedule with about three-quarters of the project having been completed.
Building work at the 65,000-seat stadium, which signed up its naming-rights partner in August, is on track to meet the “substantial completion deadline” of July 31 next year, according to Mortenson Construction, which is collaborating with McCarthy Building.
The budget for Allegiant Stadium increased by a further $90m (£69.8m/€81.8m) in September, bringing the total cost of the project to $1.97bn.
Image: Allegiant
