Isle of Capri pours casino basin

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - The Isle of Capri casino construction took a big step forward Tuesday night.

Construction crews poured a 41 thousand square foot concrete slab for over 12 hours. The slab will serve as the basin where the casino floor will float.

Missouri law requires that casinos are built within 1000 feet of a river and the gaming floor must float.

Isle of Capri’s Vice President of Design and Construction Dick Meister explained the casino's requirements according to Missouri law.

"In Missouri we can build a basin of 41,000 square feet and then put a barge of about 41,000 square feet and let it float. As long as there is two feet of water under the barge and a couple of feet on either side to swim around. However, when you walk into the barge, at end of the day, inside the building, you will not know that you have gone from the building to barge and back and forth. It’s a very seamless transition the way these are built now,” Meister said.

The concrete was poured overnight so that concrete trucks would not interfere with traffic.

Approximately 40 concrete trucks per hour arrived at the construction zone, hauling concrete from three Delta plants in Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

Meister says the basin must be completely flat. It cannot be off by more that one-eighth of an inch throughout it’s forty-one thousand square feet.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

Posted in: cape girardeau,Dick Meister,Isle of Capri