It is a remarkable engineering feat - the railroad, highways and tunnels which connect the the Black Sea town of Adler to the ski resort of Krasnaya Polyana (already a favorite of Russian President Putin and heli-skiers) in the Caucasus muntains where many of the Sochi Olympics events are scheduled.
Tunnel magazine describes the challenges of the 6 tunnel complexes of the 30 mile, 1,500 feet elevation route.
Michael Geller describes on his blog with a number of photos the wide range of rail stations, hotels and other construction that has mushroomed.
Then there is the 3 mile aerial cableway designed to move 3,000 people hourly in each direction.
The video below describes more of the events and facilities.
But all this comes at a massive price. As Businessweek says “At $51 billion, the Sochi Games are the costliest ever, surpassing the $40 billion spent by China on the 2008 Summer Olympics.” Waste, corruption and maybe wild optimism. History will likely call the town Pollyanna.
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