Columbus Casino Developers: Safety No. 1 Priority

Developers of the new Hollywood Casino on the west side said on Friday that the collapses at both the Cleveland and Cincinnati casino construction sites were “nothing more than a coincidence.”
 
Representatives of developer Penn National said that safety is the company’s No. 1 priority, 10TV’s Josh Poland reported.
 
“It’s a very big deal to Penn National as the developer and a very big deal to our contractors,” Penn National spokesman Bob Tenenbaum said. “A casino construction project is not any different from a hotel construction project, a factory construction project.”
 
Tenenbaum said that the construction incidents in Ohio occurred as workers were pouring concrete.
 
The Cleveland incident happened on Dec. 16, and the Cincinnati collapse occurred on Friday.
 
Construction crews already have completed that step for the Columbus casino, meaning they were past the risk of a similar collapse, Poland reported.
 
The Hollywood Casino does not have a completion date, but Tenenbaum said that they hope to open by fall.
 
Penn National said that its focus was on doing the job correctly.
 
“We set target opening dates based on the length of time required to do the construction correctly,” Tenenbaum said.
 
The majority of work left to be done at the casino includes landscaping, paving and interior work, Poland reported.

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