Blue Chip II Gaming Vessel, Boyd Gaming Corporation

When Boyd Gaming considered a new casino boat to replace an aging, overcrowded one in Michigan City, Ind., they took on the two top criticisms voiced by patrons of many floating casinos: lack of fresh air in the smoke-filled gaming rooms, and congestion in the too-narrow spaces between tables and slot machines.

The Las Vegas gaming company’s new Blue Chip Casino boat, near the shore of southern Lake Michigan, would not only be spacious – it would be the world’s largest. But the ship’s initial plan encountered rough water early, when estimators put its cost at $200 million, nearly twice what the owner originally thought it would cost.

To meet their budget, the size would have to be reduced from five decks to four, a step that would significantly affect the ship’s piping systems. International Piping Systems, Inc. came to the owner’s aid. IPS CEO Robert Lempa, Vice President of Sales Greg Maus and Project Manager Dave Sawtell flew from their Chicago-area office to both coasts to help the project’s marine architect (Guido-Perla Associates, Seattle, Wash.) and shipbuilder (Jamestown Metal Marine Sales, Inc., Boca Raton, Fla.) downsize the mechanical systems. They were assisted by IPS Indiana office Estimator Brian Lecea and KJWW Engineering, a mechanical engineering firm in Naperville, Ill. “We fine tuned everything related to HVAC on the vessel,” Maus said.

The owner recognized IPS’s commitment and expertise early in the project, and when it came time to build, named IPS the lead mechanical contractor. Unlike projects on dry land, where every detail is drawn before assembled, much of boat building takes place “on the fly.” Consequently, the project’s design phase often overlapped the construction phase, so IPS had to build one part of the ship before other parts were even on the drawing board. The mechanical contractor’s planning and scheduling mastery were also challenged. The ship’s heavy-duty chillers, boilers, generators and other components and piping had to be set inside the 160,000 square-foot hull in a choreographed sequence that kept in step with the shipbuilder.

Staying in step meant getting materials delivered on time and in the right sequence. Piping assemblies were prefabricated (onsite and off) as much as possible. Material handling was a daily priority as everything had to be scheduled around availability of the busy cranes. The IPS crew made a rubber tire fork truck, or “Lull,” their workhorse, running it non-stop to set everything they needed alongside the boat for hoisting. When possible they set sections of large pipe on temporary supports inside the hull, to avoid a second, more difficult lift when the deck from which it would hang was finally built. “We had to fit everything in between crane lifts. That was the biggest challenge,” said Frank Camasta, project superintendent for IPS.