A cable car that was supposed to transport spectators to the women’s Olympic events in Cortina will not be completed on time, prompting Winter Olympics organizers to ask for school closures to ease pressure on the Dolomite resort’s traffic system.
The Apollonio-Socrepes cable car is one of the most controversial infrastructure projects for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, which will be jointly organized by the Alpine town of Cortina d’Ampezzo and the Italian capital Milan from February 6 to 22, Reuters writes.
Work on the system, which was supposed to transport spectators directly from the city center to the ski slopes, started late, with some residents expressing concerns about the safety of the site, given that it is in an area prone to landslides.
Despite growing doubts about the implementation of the project, which is still unfinished a week before the start of the Games, Simico, the state agency in charge of Olympic infrastructure, said on Friday that work was progressing according to plan.
However, in a January 29 letter addressed to the highest representative of the central government in the province of Belluno, Games chief operating officer Andrea Francisi stated that Simico had informed the organizers the day before that the cable car would not be delivered on time.
In a statement released Saturday, Simico said work on the cable car was continuing and that safety checks needed for final commissioning were planned for next week, adding that logistical issues, such as school closures, were not his responsibility.
In the letter, which has not been previously published, Francisi described the cable car as a key element of the Olympic mobility plan for Cortina, which will also host curling, bobsleigh, luge and skeleton events.
– The loss of this strategic infrastructure, just before the start of Olympic operations, creates serious organizational challenges, with a major impact on the management of people’s movement, security and the overall ability of the system to absorb alternative forms of mobility – the letter states.
For this reason, the organizers asked the local authorities to close schools in Cortina on February 10 and 12, and if possible on February 11, in order to relieve the city’s traffic network during the key days of the Olympic activities. The closing of schools on the most critical days was assessed as necessary in order to preserve order and the functioning of the transport system.
(Vijesti.ba/Fena)
