- At least 116 workers at the construction site of the $400 million Montage Big Sky luxury resort in Big Sky, Montana have tested positive for the coronavirus since July 8, Johnathan Hettinger reported for Montana Free Press.
- It's one of the largest outbreaks in Montana, which has reported 3,814 cases and 55 deaths.
- Suffolk Construction, the Boston-based contractor for the project, hired a private lab to conduct more than 885 tests so far, the company confirmed to Business Insider.
- Some of the workers who tested positive reportedly live in other Montana counties.
- Six Suffolk employees tested positive for the virus back in March, after which Suffolk said it was taking precautions to keep a six-foot distance between workers.
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The construction site of the Montage Big Sky luxury resort in Big Sky, Montana, has been linked to at least 116 coronavirus cases, the Montana Free Press reported.
Matt Kelley, health officer for the Gallatin City-County Health Department, confirmed that number to Business Insider. The outbreak is one of the largest in Montana, which has reported 3,814 cases and 55 deaths.
Suffolk Construction, the Boston-based contractor for the project, hired a private lab to conduct more than 885 tests since July 8, the company confirmed to Business Insider.
In an email to Business Insider, Joel Nickel, Suffolk's director for the project, disputed that 116 workers had tested positive. He said that while Suffolk reported 116 positive test results this month, some workers were tested more than once. He did not say how many workers actually tested positive.
Some of the workers who tested positive live in Montana counties other than Gallatin, where construction is taking place, per the Montana Free Press.
Kelley of Gallatin County's health department said the outbreak likely had to do with the nature of large construction projects, which often bring in contractors from many geographic areas. "We know that some staff carpool and share rides to the site, and we are aware that some live in shared housing locally while they are on the job," Kelley told Business Insider.
He added that while he suspects most of the workers reside in Gallatin County, several other counties have been assigned cases.
Suffolk handled the initial contact tracing for the cases, but local public health officials in various counties are now performing "an increasing amount" of contact tracing related to the Montage Big Sky outbreak, according to Gallatin County's health department.
This isn't the first outbreak at the Montage Big Sky's construction site. Coronavirus cases were first reported on the resort's construction site back in March, when six Suffolk employees tested positive. After that, Suffolk said it was taking precautions to keep a six-foot distance between workers.
Nickel said that these measures have continued and that all the new cases were asymptomatic and passed daily temperature checks.
All of the workers who originally tested positive in July are now "healthy and back to work" after the job site was thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, Nickel said. He added that Suffolk will be conducting "smart testing" for the foreseeable future, in which all new workers on the site, as well as a random sample of existing employees, to be tested for the virus at random intervals.
Construction on the Montage Big Sky is more than half complete, a Suffolk spokesperson told Business Insider. Montage International, with private equity firm CrossHarbor Capital Partners LLC, started construction of the resort on a $400 million property in September 2018.
Plans for the resort, which is set to open in 2021, include a 150-room hotel, a bowling alley, two swimming pools, ski lockers, and ski-in and ski-out access to Big Sky Resort, the second-largest ski resort in the US by acreage.
Montage International and the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.
