Winter Olympic Works On Schedule, Sochi Says

(ATR) Sochi 2014 organizers tell Around the Rings that the rapid construction program for the Winter Olympics is "firmly on track" to allow for two seasons of test events.

By year's end, 70 percent of all work will be completed, according to a Sochi spokeswoman. Construction is ahead of schedule in some cases, including the Rosa Khutor Mountain Ski Center.

ATR is told there are currently 45,000 workers busy building venues and infrastructure in and around the Black Sea resort. During peak periods, some 35,000 people will be working on the venues alone at Europe's biggest construction site.

Mounting of the dome metal structure on the Bolshoi Ice Palace in the coastal cluster is currently under way. The venue for Olympic ice hockey will open in May 2012, becoming the first completed arena for Sochi 2014. First test events are scheduled for September of next year.

Work on the installation of ramp support pillars and flooring for the Maly Ice Palace in the Olympic Park is also progressingon track. Filling and concrete bedding works under the base of the ice rink cooling slab have been completed. Roof trusses are currently being installed.

Sochi 2014 said the building framework for the figure skating and short-track center is nearing completion. It's a 15,000-ton metal structure.

The 40,000-capacity mainstadium for the Games is sprouting from the ground with work continuing on to complete the structure. The venue is not due to open for two more years.

In the mountain cluster, construction of the first floor of the Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort is set to be finished by October.

At the ski and biathlon complex, construction of six floors of the biathlon stadium is now complete.

The international biathlon and ski federations have inspected the tracks and earthworks for track profiling have begun.

Test events at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort are planned for this December.

Reported by Mark Bisson