With little more than a month before the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Games, the city is getting its act together.
Utility poles are sprouting bright, decorative banners while fences measuring 2.5 metres surround the Olympic Village.
Thousands of roadside banners in bright red, yellow, orange and teal adorn the city and Salt Lake organizers have now installed four of the 14 building wraps, (massive images of athletes), on selected structures around the downtown area and the University of Utah. Banners are also going up in Park City, Ogden, Provo and at venues which will also get a giant athlete image to hang on the side.
The underside of bleachers will be wrapped at each outdoor venue with festive banners and the ski runs will be lined with colourful emblems.
Meanwhile, on a hillside high above the city, crews have begun to craft the five lighted circles of the Olympic rings and a generator will be ferried by helicopter in the new few days to power the lights.
Although the bleachers for the medals’ plaza are up, the stage still needs to be assembled.
According to Lt. Col. Craig Morgan, spokesman for the Utah National Guard, 3,100 guardsmen will be on duty by mid-January. Most will be assigned as sentries or to security details.
For additional security access roads are lined with 2.5 metre chain link fences, each topped by sensor wires
Tickets for some of the hottest acts are free to anybody willing to wear a wristband. That’s if you want to wait in long line-ups to get the limited amount of tickets available. Sixty-two thousand tickets will be distributed nightly to the medals-presentation ceremonies and concerts at the downtown Olympic Medals Plaza.
And there will also be line-ups travelling during the Games. The longest delay will be on a steep stretch of Interstate 80 connecting Salt Lake City with mountain venues.
A panel of transportation specialists said Salt Lake City is as prepared as possible, with dozens of additional buses as well as more light rail cars. But it will still be slow going for the additional 70,000 people per day expected to be in town.
To make it all worth while, you can always take home one of the Olympic hockey jerseys that have become a hot-selling item at sporting goods stores around the Salt Lake Valley to remind you of the great time you had at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games.