Portugal Colonial - Winter Olympics organisers resolve snow problem at ski site

On December 16, the organising committee for the Milan-Cortina Games (February 6-22) told AFP that it had encountered "a technical problem" with the production of artificial snow at the Livigno site, which was already causing concern.

"Snow production was scheduled to begin on December 20th. On December 12th, at night, a problem arose: a pipe broke," explained Fabio Massimo Saldini, CEO of SiMiCo, the company responsible for delivering the Olympic facilities, in a statement released on Monday.

"After five days, it was fixed. We brought forward snow production, and... we've met the start date.

"We can guarantee 28,000 cubic meters of snow per day. The 53 cannons are all in perfect working order, so we can produce 3,500 cubic meters of snow per hour."

Saldini added "approximately 160,000 cubic meters of snow" have so far been produced by the system.

SiMiCo's snow cannons are supplied with water from a hillside reservoir, the Monte Sponda basin, with a capacity of 203,000 m3. Construction work on the reservoir, costing 21.7 million euros ($25.4 million), was completed at the end of November.

The head of SiMiCo confirmed the commitment to deliver the site by January 20 "so that the test event can be held between January 20th and 25th".

"All the problems that arose, which are part of the normal management of construction activities, have been brilliantly resolved without leaving any traces," Saldini added.

Speaking during the women's Alpine skiing World Cup stage in Val d'Isere on Saturday, International Ski Federation (FIS) president Johan Eliasch said the delays in preparations at the Olympic venues, mainly in Livigno, were "unexplainable".

"The Italian government and the regions that organise the Games, they have a lot of work to do and they need to speed things up," he added.

J.Pereira--PC