Cross Country News

The bulldozers have made their entrance into the Lugnet National Ski Arena at Lugnet in Falun. Work has started on reshaping the entire facility in preparation for the 2015 Nordic World Ski Championships. During the summer, both local people and tourists have been able to follow the preparatory excavations, which include the area leading up from the cross-country stadium to the jumping hills.

”It feels great that at last we’ve started the practical construction work. Up to now we’ve been focusing on planning, projecting and procurement. So now we’re very happy to see the real construction work starting”, says Liselotte Jonsson, CEO of the LUFAB company (Lugnet i Falun AB) who is responsible for the Lugnet sports complex.

The first phase of the work covers the provision of basic services such as power, water and heating to the ski-jumping facilities.
In addition, the major excavation work involved in bringing the landing slopes up to modern requirements has got properly underway.

It’s a local contractor, ”Ericsson i Lima AB”, from the northern part of Dalarna, who will be responsible for carrying out the work.
Daniel Bröyt is CEO of Ericson i Lima AB, and is looking forward to the contract in Falun.

“It will be really exciting – this type of project isn’t very common and we’re going to need some special heavy machinery to bring it off successfully.
Daniel Bröyt also mentioned that on the steep landing slopes some of the machines will have to be secured using thick steel wire and winches.

They will also have to use helicopters to transfer the materials they need to the steepest parts of the slopes. The groundwork should be completed by the summer of 2013.

At the same time, work is in progress to further develop the cross-country arena and tracks for the 2015 Championships.  Most of this should however be completed in time for this winter’s World Cup events in March 2013.

In addition, the local construction company ByggPartner has been contracted to renovate the ski-jumping hill.

Contributed by Anders Hansson, Falun 2015