The tender for the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton track of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics fell through, with no company interested in building the infrastructure. On July 31, in fact, the deadline for submitting bids to Società Infrastrutture Milano-Cortina 2026 (Simico) for the tender published in June expired, aided by a very tight timetable and controversy from environmentalists. The working track should be completed by November 2024 so that it can be made available to the federations and technical bodies for testing. Although the Olympic competitions will be held in February 2026, testing must take place at least the year before, given the need for low temperatures. However, yesterday the Minister of Sport and Youth, Andrea Abodi, intervened on the issue to reassure: "A bidding process that goes unsuccessful is part of the risks of a saturated market. It is not easy right now because there are so many works, so many construction sites. The negotiated procedure that was activated immediately in consultation with the Minister of Infrastructure sees us relatively confident". "When organizing something so complex, concern accompanies us day and night, because out of a sense of responsibility we have to keep the level of sensitivities high," he continued, "We are confident that this issue, too, will be resolved through the relationship with the market, which is regulated, but allows us to be more effective in a direct way with those who will have to build the runway". The direction, then, is that of the negotiated procedure, essentially a direct bid, which is possible thanks to the new Procurement Code that came into effect last July 1.
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