Signs of the coming 2002 Winter Games will start springing up over the next three months, morphing laid-back Salt Lake City into a full-blown Olympic host.
And not all of them will be pretty.
Security fences, jersey barriers, orange cones and roadblocks are sure to give folks cause to groan if not feel some trepidation.
"Still a lot of uncertainty about Olympic security" is what state Olympic officer Lane Beattie said he's finding among Utahns. "It's so hard to get the message out there. The reality is we have less of a security risk than we did before the (Sept.) 11th."
Olympic organizers might be able to wash some of the fears away with the colorful banners, striking building wraps and fluttering flags that will go up in the next three months as part of the festive atmosphere they hope to create on the now more safety-conscious Wasatch Front.
Today marks 100 days until the Feb. 8 opening ceremonies. Over the next 2,400 hours, Utahns will bump into Olympic preparations at every turn, whether that be on a street, sidewalk or ski slope.
"About the first week of December, (residents) will see some significant changes," said Grant Thomas, Salt Lake Organizing Committee vice president for venues and transportation.
On course
Mother Nature has yet to blanket resorts with that most vital Winter Games element — snow. But construction crews are busily erecting the monstrous structures necessary to stage the world's biggest skiing and snowboarding events.
Aside from making snow, which Park City Mountain Resort started last week, huge metal bleachers, broadcast platforms and massive tents are rising on the mountainside.
There's a $100 million flurry of construction at the competition sites, nearly all of which will be torn down after the Games.
Thomas said the work is on or ahead of schedule. "It's right about where we thought it would be," he said.
At Snowbasin, where some 22,500 spectators will see the likes of Picabo Street making a run for the gold, 95 of 102 temporary trailers are in place as are 10 of the 15 tents that will cover 20,000 square feet. Construction crews there are four weeks ahead of schedule.
"That's music to my ears because we're always nervous about everything," Fraser Bullock, SLOC chief operating officer, told the Salt Lake Downtown Alliance last week.
But he doesn't expect the transitions to be without headaches.
The Delta Center won't get its internal Olympic makeover for figure skating until almost the last minute. SLOC doesn't get control of the arena until after the Utah Jazz game on Feb. 2, just six days before the Games begin.
Meantime, there's already noise at the E Center.
"People who attend an event at the E Center may hear a few hammers being pounded," said Dennis Nordfelt, West Valley City Olympic coordinator.
Locker rooms for hockey teams — each nation gets its own — are being built inside the venue and will extend outside to a new building in the parking lot.
Street smarts
Some of the work in the ensuing weeks might be subtle or done while the city sleeps. Other projects, like the pre-Olympic security drills last week, will be hard to miss, and might even stop onlookers in their tracks.
 Deseret News graphic Olympic venues mapRequires Adobe Acrobat. | |
"I don't think it's going to be disruptive. It think it's going to be busier," said Tim Harpst, Salt Lake transportation director.
Downtown motorists might have noticed 200 West under the Salt Palace Convention Center is already closed to accommodate work on the Main Media Center. In a month, 200 West between North Temple and South Temple will close for work on the Medals Plaza.
Slowly, other downtown streets will be blocked off. "The bulk of it is right before the Games start," Harpst said.
Don't go looking for America's Team if you happen to see a Dallas Area Rapid Transit train coasting down Main Street. The Cowboys are nowhere in sight. The Utah Transit Authority is testing the borrowed yellow rail cars for use on the TRAX line during the Games.
Also, loaner buses from various cities will start flooding the city in the next couple of months as part of the shuttle system fleet. Residents also might see site work going on at Liberty and Sugar House parks where park-and-ride lots will be set up.
"The parks won't be closed," Harpst said.
The Utah Department of Transportation expects to wrap up many current projects before the Olympics, including at Silver Creek Junction on I-80 outside Park City. UDOT will postpone those it can't finish, said spokesman Nile Easton.
"Hopefully, people will see less and less" road work, he said.
Looks are everything
SLOC intends to begin unveiling some of its "look of the Games" goodies in early to mid-November, said spokeswoman Nancy Volmer. But the big stuff — large-scale banners mounted on about a dozen high-rise buildings in downtown Salt Lake City, processional banners hung along city streets and pylons listing directional information — will be saved until January.
At the downtown Olympic Medals Plaza, workers are putting in flagpole bases and footings for a stage.
Poles for two layers of fencing that will ring the athlete's village in the Fort Douglas area at the University of Utah are currently being planted. A 12,000-seat expansion of the Rice-Eccles Stadium will start after the last home football game Nov. 10.
Salt Lake City won't begin fencing the City-County Building for the Olympic Arts Festival until after the first of the year. "Nothing will start until Jan. 2. Not a thing," said Robyn Kratzer, Olympic planning office spokeswoman.
"Whenever I'm asked to speak now, people want to know what we're doing for the Olympics and what we can expect," said Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey.
City crews already have repaired curbs, gutters and sidewalks on main thoroughfares. New Olympic flags also will be going up on Washington Boulevard.
"It's coming together," he said.
In Provo, officials are contemplating an "Olympic-type monument" somewhere in the city, said Dixon Holmes, assistant economic development director. Flags representing nations that will compete in hockey at The Peaks Ice Arena will start flying in early December.
Meantime, the city will call on residents and business owners along main city entrances to take broom and rake in hand. "We're encouraging property owners to dress up their property," Holmes said.
West Valley City expects to receive its flags and banners for overpasses, intersections and city vehicles in early November.
"I still feel like there is a growing excitement that will be greatly accelerated the day the torch hits Utah," Nordfelt said. That day is Feb. 4.
City in a city
While construction at the outdoor venues is hard to miss, science teachers attending a conference at the Salt Palace Convention Center last week likely had no idea what's cooking behind a large curtain.
Workers are hammering together the Main Media Center, which Olympic broadcaster NBC will occupy as soon as mid-December. Not since building 48 lanes for the World Bowling Congress has so much construction gone into the building.
Crews are erecting 11,000 feet of walling to divide up 430,000 square feet of floor space. They will install 775,000 feet of cable, 3,500 telephone lines and 1,200 computers.
"You're building a small city, for all intents and purposes," said Beth White, SLOC media center general manager. About 7,000 people will populate the building on any given day, she said.
The international broadcaster center (for electronic media) is almost complete, while the main press center (for print media) will be done in December, she said. The building also will contain stores, dining areas, a bank and a laundry.
Six months in the making, the $12 million media center will take less than two weeks to dismantle.
"We've already started having meetings here on how we get out," White said.
And she has some post-Games advice for reporters: "You definitely don't want to be dawdling in the halls," she said, adding that take-down crews are likely to roll up a straggler in the carpet.
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