Good Times, Bad Times

Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Hopes to Reopen in ‘09

By Debra Wood

Hard Rock Park, a $400 million rock-and-roll theme park that offers a Central Florida-style attraction to South Carolina, has opened in Myrtle Beach.

“I loved the market; 14 million people a year come here,” says Jon Binkowski, chief creative officer with HRP Myrtle Beach Operations of Myrtle Beach, owner of the park. “Myrtle Beach is a music town, and it was a natural.”

Binkowski, a former SeaWorld Orlando executive, owned a couple of theaters in the South Carolina resort town while living in Orlando. When the property came available, Binkowski teamed up with two other Orlando-based theme-park experts — Steven Goodwin, a former Rank Group executive, and Felix Messenden, former president of Universal Orlando — to develop a destination-style theme park in Myrtle Beach.

Hard Rock Park sits on 140 acres about 3 mi from the beach. It features more than 50 different rides and attractions. Operations began with a “dress rehearsal” in April. A soft opening occurred in May and an official grand opening on June 2. The park can accommodate up to 30,000 guests.

“When people walk through the gates, it’s like going into an Orlando park,” Binkowski says. “It’s similar in size to Disney Hollywood Studios or Universal Studios if you took the studios away.”

Only the focus is on music.

Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Orlando began earth work in February 2006 and construction in 2007. It completed the $110 million construction, 55-acre project within 16 months and within budget. The work included constructing 485,000 sq ft in 40 unique buildings and 490,000 sq ft of concrete hardscape. Cory Olson, assistant project manager for Hensel Phelps, calls it a one-of-a-kind project.

M.B. Kahn Construction Co. of Columbia, S.C., renovated a former mall into office space for the park. It also built “Lost in the 70s,” one of the six themed “rock environs.”

The other environs include: the All Access Entry Plaza, Rock & Roll Heaven, British Invasion, Born in the USA and Cool Country.

“We looked at different genres,” says Mike Frohnapple, project manager for Morris Architects of Orlando. “We thought about the different rides and attractions stemming from those environs.”

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As HRP secured intellectual property rights, Frohnapple and the Morris team determined the best way to incorporate the artists’ music into the park. For instance, at the signature Led Zeppelin-The Ride, a 15-story-high roller coaster that loops six times, the loading and unloading area is designed to look like a blimp or zeppelin.

The architecture surrounding the Eagles Life in the Fast Lane coaster, which reaches a height of 46 ft and lasts two minutes, has a rugged barn appearance.

“Music is integrated throughout all parts of the park,” Frohnapple says. “The music is done seamlessly, and you are cognizant of the transition. It makes a lot of sense and is a strong part of the design concept.”

For instance, music has been specifically mixed for the parks. The same song plays in the background throughout the zone. At a specific venue, say a restaurant, a steel band may play the back melody.

The Nassal Co. of Orlando built out the facades of the buildings to carry out the theme. Mosley Erecting of Richburg, S.C., erected the rides.

Digging in “gumbo”

Clay soils and muck presented the biggest challenge, Binkowski says.

“The existing site was horrendous,” Olson adds. “It’s a clay material the locals call ‘gumbo.’ We fought the site from day one until a week before the opening. We were putting in underground utilities all the way through until the end.”

Sitework and utilities subcontractor A.O. Hardee & Son of Little River, S.C., excavated and disposed of 250,000 cu yds of the sticky, gumbo clay and replaced it with 320,000 cu yds of imported borrow material.

“The gumbo clay is a material that is indigenous of a lot of areas in the South Carolina coastal region,” Donnie Ray, chief operations officer for A.O. Hardee, says in an e-mail. “Even though it is full of minerals, the high percentage of clay particles prevents the movement of water. It can tend to make a site turn into a bathtub if not handled correctly.”

A.O. Hardee also installed 5 mi of under drain pipe to prevent collection of water in the imported fill and 5 mi of storm drainage pipe. The company placed 250,000 sq yds of asphalt paving with 4 mi of curb and gutter.

Due to the soil conditions, the buildings and rides sit on piles, reaching to a depth of 35 to 40 ft. Four-ft-diameter stone columns and spread footings support the structural-steel, concrete masonry unit and metal-stud buildings.

Wood or concrete piles provide a foundation for the rides, with the material dependent on the lateral loads, says Russ Dagon, executive project director with HRP.

“If we had excessive loads (with) a roller coaster, for example, we went with the concrete, and when we didn’t have excessive lateral loading, we’d go with the wood piles,” Dagon adds.

The Led Zeppelin roller coaster, which zooms out over a 9-acre lagoon, required concrete piles driven from a temporary bridge. A wooden bridge allowing pedestrians to cross the water sits on wood piles driven from barges. For some facilities, sheeting piling was used to stabilize the water’s edge.

Permitting and change orders

HRP permitted each of the approximately 40 buildings as Morris Architects completed the drawings.

“We didn’t want to have the whole project held up and not be able to open the doors because some small building that was offering ice cream didn’t finish up,” Binkowski says. Dagon says the Myrtle Beach building department officials worked closely with the team to secure permitting, drawing parallels for unique items such as roller coasters passing through buildings and egress from a dark ride in case of an emergency. The buildings are built to seismic and hurricane windload codes and can withstand 130 mph winds.

While separate permitting prevented delays, managing documents presented some challenges for Hensel Phelps, Olson says. The first permits for the one- and two-story buildings that house rides, retail, restaurants and concert venues came in winter 2006.

“We had to maintain individual sets of drawings and permits,” Olson says. “We had 1,700 individual change estimates, requests for information or the owner’s direction or the architect bulletins, and we did not extend the schedule by one day.”

Hensel Phelps assigned different field teams to the entry plaza and each themed section of the park. The company self-performed about $7 million worth of structural concrete work and hardscape grading. The average workforce was about 375 and peaked at 600 people.

“The individual drawing sets, with 150 building permits, working in all different lands and incorporating the 1,700 changes, that was the pulse of the job,” Olson says. “We were never able to get an established flow.”

Team box:

Owner: HRP Myrtle Beach Operations, Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Architect: Morris Architects, Orlando
Contractor: Hensel Phelps Construction, Orlando
Site Work and Underground Utilities: A.O. Hardee & Son Inc., Little River, S.C.
Theming contractor: The Nassal Co., Orlando
Hardscape: UCC Group, Orlando
Drywall and stucco: Precision Walls, Cary, N.C.
Electrical and Fire Safety: Melton Electric, Myrtle Beach