Seven Construction Workers At Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium Construction Site Have Now Tested Positive For COVID-19

By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com

The number of workers at the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium construction site who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus has reached seven, according to stadium consultant Jeremy Aguero and the Mortenson/McCarthy Joint Venture coordinating the construction of the $1.97 billion venue project off the Strip.

Here’s the first paragraph of the Mortenson/McCarthy statement Tuesday:

April 28, 2020

Update on COVID-19 at Allegiant Stadium Mortenson/McCarthy’s highest priority is the health and safety of our team members, project partners and the community. Since the onset of COVID-19, more than 4000 craft workers and various trade partners and vendors have been on site and the project has experienced a total of 7 confirmed positive cases to date.

Gov. Steve Sisolak has deemed construction as essential work and work at construction and road sites has continued in Nevada after Sisolak ordered the stay-at-home message in March.

 

The stadium construction contractors say they have required workers to wear face coverings.

Starting the week of April 20, additional health and safety measures were added on the project. Face coverings are now required for all workers and site visitors; we have implemented an on-site permit process for project partners that details additional controls and safeguards for work completed on site; we have increased monitoring to further ensure compliance amongst all workers and we have also shifted certain work activities to a night shift in an effort to reduce congestion within certain areas of the project.

The Raiders say the 65,000-seat, domed stadium project on 62.5 acres on the west side of I-15 across from Mandalay Bay is still on schedule to be completed July 31. There is a Garth Brooks concert planned for Aug. 22 and a UNLV vs California college football game scheduled for Aug. 29 at the stadium.

The four new COVID-19 positive cases brought the total number to seven. Aguero explained to LVSportsBiz.com Tuesday that, “That figure (of seven) includes workers that contracted the virus early on and have been cleared to be back on site.”

LVSportsBiz.com emailed the governor’s office for comment and will update story if we hear back.

Gov. Sisolak’s press office did send out this press release: “Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak announced the appointment of Heather Korbulic as the Interim Director of the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.”

Here’s the latest COVID-19 numbers from the state of Nevada as of Monday.

 


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Alan Snel

Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.