History
Prior to the Lillehammer Olympics, there was no bobsleigh and luge track in Norway. During the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Korketrekkeren had been built as a temporary venue, but it was made of snow and was not reused after the Olympics. In its bid for the 1994 Winter Olympics, Lillehammer had proposed placing the bobsleigh and luge track next to Balbergbakken in Fåberg. By May 1989, plans for most of the venues were being reshuffled and the track was then proposed located at Kanthaugen as part of an Olympic Park at Stampesletta. The Kanthaugen proposal was estimated to cost NOK 231 million.
Lillehammer Municipal Council, Oppland County Council and the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage rejected the location because of the environmental impact. These institutions instead proposed that the track be built at Huseskogen at Hunderfossen. The Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee initially disapproved of the location and in 1990 started looking at the possibility of constructing the track at Holmenkollen in Oslo. Two routes were considered, one in the same route as Korketrekkeren and one which would run from Gratishaugen at Holmenkollbakken to Midtstuen. Internationally there was support from the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation and the International Luge Federation to build Norway's track in the capital. Concerns about the environmental impact of a Hunderfossen location were raised, particularly regarding visual pollution. However, Hunderfossen was confirmed along with a grant issued by the Parliament of Norway on 24 August 1990.
The designers of the tracks at Altenberg and Oberhof, East Germany, the Olympic tracks in La Plagne, France, and Calgary, Canada, were consulted during planning. Five companies bid for the concrete construction work, which was awarded to a joint venture between Aker Entreprenør and Veidekke for NOK 45 million. Also the construction of the buildings was awarded to the same group. The track was the first of the Olympic venues for the 1994 games for which construction started. After construction started, Minister of Culture Åse Kleveland (Labour Party) suggested in March 1991, in an attempt to reduce costs, that the 1994 Olympic bobsleigh and luge events be held at La Plagne, the site of the events for the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville. The French authorities were positive, given that Norway pay for part of the construction costs, but the idea was rejected by LOOC-president Gerhard Heiberg. Also fellow party members reacted, who emphasized that NOK 30 million had already been used on blasting the track route.
Construction was undertaken by spraying 1,300 tonnes (1,300 long tons; 1,400 short tons) of shotcrete intertwined with 180 tonnes (180 long tons; 200 short tons) of reinforcement bars. It is the first track in the world to build the cooling pipes into an underground culvert. It consists of 31 reinforced concrete sections. The concrete work was completed on 31 October 1991. Representatives for the Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature stated that they were satisfied with the end result. It is the only artificially frozen bobsleigh and luge track in the Nordic Countries. The venue was completed on 1 October 1992 and cost NOK 201 million. After the Olympics, the ownership of the venue was transferred to Lillehammer Olympiapark, owned by Lillehammer Municipality.
Read more about this topic: Lillehammer Olympic Bobsleigh And Luge Track
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of persecution is a history of endeavors to cheat nature, to make water run up hill, to twist a rope of sand.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A poet’s object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)
“Boys forget what their country means by just reading “the land of the free” in history books. Then they get to be men, they forget even more. Liberty’s too precious a thing to be buried in books.”
—Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)