Big Sky Resort: The world’s longest 8-place lift is coming to life

Building the world’s longest eight-place lift in one season is no small feat, but Big Sky Resort’s construction teams, in partnership with Jackson Contractor Group and Doppelmayr, make it look like a piece of cake.

Since the decommissioning of the Six Shooter lift this spring, teams have been working tirelessly to excavate the new Madison 8 terminal building footprints, build up the sites with crushed rock material, and complete the structural work below the surface with micropile installation. All at 9,000 feet of elevation in May and June when Big Sky experienced what felt like a winter that did not want to end.

Despite weather and subsurface geological challenges, the teams persevered and began pouring concrete in July, with the Jackson team leading concrete work at the upper and lower terminal sites, and the Doppelmayr team focusing on the chairlift tower sites.

The tower sites are in remote locations along the lift line, making them hard to access with typical equipment. This required the concrete formwork, rebar, and concrete to be flown and set in place via helicopter. To support all 25 towers, Doppelmayr placed 490 cubic yards of concrete via helicopter, and an additional 56 cubic yards with the pump truck at the less remote locations.

The upper and lower terminals had more accessible build sites but much more concrete volume to pour, over 900 cubic yards at the upper terminal and over 800 cubic yards at the lower terminal throughout the summer.

With the foundational work complete, structural steel work is underway at the lower terminal enclosure where the chairs will be stored and protected from the elements each night, while Doppelmayr installs the lift components. Structural steel work at the upper terminal will begin in October.