Controversial Cortina cable car still unfinished a week before Winter Games start

MILAN – Mounting doubts surround whether Cortina d’Ampezzo’s cable car will be ready in time for the women’s Olympic alpine skiing events at the Dolomites resort, with the infrastructure still unfinished a week before the Games begin.

The Apollonio-Socrepes lift is one of the most controversial infrastructure projects for the upcoming Winter Olympics, which Cortina and the city of Milan co-host from Feb 6-22.

Work to build the cable car, designed to take visitors from the town centre directly to the slopes, began behind schedule, and some residents have raised safety concerns about the project, which is being constructed in a landslide area.

The 50 gondolas have not yet been installed and the safety test – originally scheduled for the final week before the start of the Games – still needs to be carried out, two people close to the matter said.

Simico, the agency in charge of the project, had repeatedly said the cable car would be delivered on time. In a statement on Jan 30, it said work was progressing according to schedule.

“The pulling of the cable has been completed and the splicing of the cable will begin,” it said, adding that over the weekend the alignment of the rollers at the three stations and the 10 pylons will be checked.

Mechanical and hydraulic works were expected to be completed early next week, after which the required technical safety inspections would begin. Once those are finished, the lift would be ready, Simico added.

The Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina will host the women’s races, with the first scheduled for Feb 9.

“If it isn't ready by then, the opening (of the cable car) will be postponed by a few days,” one of the people involved told Reuters.

Games organisers have capped the number of tickets amid uncertainty over whether the cable car would be ready for the Games, Reuters reported in November.

A spokesperson for the Milano-Cortina 2026 organising committee said they have so far released a number of tickets in line with the capacity guaranteed by road transport.

Set in the Dolomites, Cortina is one of Italy’s best-known winter resorts and hosted the Games in 1956, but it has no rail station and access via the only main road into town can often be slow at peak times.

Meanwhile, the head of the Games said the building of a new sliding centre in Italy, instead of moving to another country as recommended by the International Olympic Committee, was the right decision.

Organisers successfully completed a brand new sliding centre in Cortina just in time despite IOC pressure a few years ago to move it to an already existing facility to save time and money.

Games CEO Andrea Varnier said he felt vindicated by the decision, given that hosting the sliding competitions elsewhere was fine in principle, but far too complex a prospect to consider mid-way through preparations.

“It was quite an adventure, time was limited,” he said on the Games website.

“As our Games are widespread, I’m very open to having venues outside of the host country, but this should be discussed at the beginning of the journey. In the middle (of the journey), to go and do one sport in another country is extremely complex.”

Where preparations are ongoing, the Olympic Village in Milan officially opened its doors on Jan 30, one week before the opening ceremony of the Games.

“Italy was the first to move in, followed by large delegations from Germany, the Czech Republic, and Japan,” the organising committee announced in a statement.

The Olympic Village in Milan is designed to house 1,700 athletes and support staff, as Italy’s economic capital hosts most of the ice sports, including figure skating and ice hockey.

Built by a private developer, it will be converted into student residences after the Paralympic Games from March 6 to 15.

Another village, this one temporary and consisting of 377 mobile homes, has been built in Cortina, the venue for the women’s alpine skiing and curling events, as well as bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton. REUTERS, AFP