49 workers test positive for COVID-19 at SoFi Stadium project

Dive Brief:

The total number of positive COVID-19 cases among construction workers on the SoFi Stadium project, the future home of the NFL Los Angeles Rams and Chargers, has reached 49, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The near-complete project, valued at around $5 billion, saw its first positive case in March and had as many as 16 cases last week. Construction is being led by a joint venture of AECOM-Hunt Construction Group and Turner Construction Co.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health also reported seven people employed by the Turner AECOM Hunt JV overseeing construction of an adjacent building are infected, along with two workers listed as symptomatic but not confirmed.

Dive Insight:

In June, the health department said an investigation into the SoFi project's growing COVID-19 cases would be opened, but the results of that investigation are not known yet.

The JV said in a statement that it had a “robust mitigation program” as well as contract tracing for both positive and presumed coronavirus cases. It also tried to put the number of cases in perspective, indicating there have been as many as 4,000 people on-site.

Construction of professional sports stadiums has continued throughout the pandemic, and multiple notable sites have seen cases among the large groups of workers.

Allegiant Stadium, the other NFL stadium nearing completion and the future home of the Las Vegas Raiders, had as many as 31 positive cases in late May. Like SoFi, Allegiant had between 2,000 and 4,000 workers present everyday in order to complete the project before the NFL regular season.

Officials on the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans sent home 32 of 275 workers in mid-June after they tested positive for coronavirus. The number of workers on the now-complete stadium, home to the New Orleans Saints, had reached 500 on some days.

Meanwhile, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, $106 million of construction and renovations on the University of Alabama’s Bryant-Denny stadium hit a speed bump when an undisclosed number of workers tested positive. The site was closed for sanitation for a weekend.

SoFi Stadium, according to the LA Times, is about 97% complete, though the future of the upcoming NFL season is unclear. The league recently offered to scrap all preseason games, in an effort to appease the NFL Players Association.