Pouring the substructures for the cabin lift in Bansko

POURING THE SUBSTRUCTURES FOR THE CABIN LIFT IN BANSKO

article by Pari daily newspaper, issue 160 - Tuesday, 20th of August 2002

The felling of 4000 sqr. m timber for cuttings is under control, claims the director of park Pirin eng. G. Gruncharov

The first concrete substructure for the cabin rope-way and the two chair lifts projected for a winter ski-centre near Bansko will be laid this week, learned "Pari" newspaper. 100 unemployed from the municipality will join the 200 who have already been working, said for "Pari" Alexander Kravarov, vice-mayor for building in Bansko. In this way the municipality of Bansko fulfils its duty in the most desired and awaited for about 15 years centre for winter sports and summer tourism in the mountain of North Pirin - the track Bunderitza meadow - Shiligarnika and Todorka peak.

Three of the seven forest cuttings Motikata, Chalin valog, Bunderitza meadow, Biathlon track, Karchelovoto, Echimene and an old course for ski facilities are ready and the fourth one is being prepared. According to the plan 4000 sqr. m timber are to be cut by the end of the year. These are first-rate trees extracted from regions in which there has not been felling till now. Most valuable are the white fir and the spruce from which furniture is being produced. There are also fir-tree, white and black pine-tree.It is true that this is first felling in these regions but there are also diseased and tindery trees which should be removed, said engineer George Gruncharov, director of National park Pirin. He was definite that the felling is under control and the main executor of the project - the firm "Balkanstroy" AD from the city of Razlog - works quite correctly. We are opened for every kind of control of work done, said the director. The cuttings are 9 m wide and this point is strictly observed. If a declination of 2-3 m appears somewhere, it is only due to the distance between the trees, explained eng. Gruncharov. The timber will be obtained by 7 firms from the furniture and building branch in the cities of Bansko and Razlog.The firms participated in an auction. The income from the sale is about 300 000 lv. and will be received directly at the National fund for preservation of the environment.
The intentions of the main investor "Julen" AD with main shareholders "Pirintourist", "Geotechmin", "Akademika", municipality of Bansko and State Insurance Institute, as well as of the executor - the largest building company in the region "Balkanstroy" AD - include that the cabin lift and the two chair lifts to start working by the end of the year. The first transfer of 8,2 mln EUR, assigned by EBRD, has already been done. There are 12 mln EUR left to be obtained. Our success depends on the precipitations in the higher site of the mountain, explained the vice-mayor. One of the
co-executors of the project is the aviation firm "Scorpion" from Sofia. Its helicopter will transport the concrete for the substructure and will help with the installing of the posts. The firm "Scorpion" has at its disposal of equipment for putting out forest fires, explained from the municipality.
The cabin rope-way will be delivered by the world famous company in this branch "Doppelmayer" from Austria. The lift has 8 seats, a capacity of 1800 persons per hour and a length of 6300 m. According to the experts it will be the most modern one in our country.
The lower station will be placed in the area Motikata, in front of the base of the Mountain Life-saving Service Bansko, the upper one - at Bunderitza meadow. According to the project from this point the skiers will use a 4-chair -lift to reach the road fork of the pistes Balkaniada and Todorka. From here with another lift they will ascend near the very top of Todorka. In this way the skiers will have a choice to descend downwards to Shiligarnika or on the new track of Echmiste to Shiligarnika.
From Bunderitza meadow will start a 6-chair-lift which will transport the tourists directly to the trade centre at Shiligarnika. At the plateau will be prepared another course. There is an interesting project for the site of Echmiste, next to the plateau. The idea is to use the new course and a 4-chair-lift to descend to Shiligarnika and back. The children's piste will be lengthen with 670 m and equipped with a new lift. Parallelly to the preparation of the ski lifts and the pistes at Bunderitza meadow a terrain with a shooting-ground for biathlon is being built. The city of Bansko was chosen for a host to the competitions for the women and men European cup in this discipline in 2003.

Read comments by Momchil Panayotov from the Bulgarian Extreme and Freestyle Skiing Association www.befsa.com who went to see how the work goes in Bansko
On 24.08 and 25.08 together with Gesha and Koleva we realized "an expeditional ascend of Vihren peak" (with an intermediate stay overnight in a tent at Goliam Kazan, enjoying views and light rain and a lot of snacks and idling on the way down). By this expedition we had the opportunity to check the building work. Generally the situation is: at that moment trough the valley of Bunderitza river are cut the tracks for the big lift (the cabin lift at Bansko) and the tracks for the lift leading to the road fork(the mentioned 4-chair-lift) and for its second part(parallel to the old lift, passing through the dwarf pine. Some of the pistes are also ready: 1.a piste parallel to the old piste in the area of the dwarf pine (leading to the road fork); 2. a piste descending from the end of the steep branch towards Bunderitza meadow. This piste is branched in its lower end and the right branch (from up-down point of view) is a proof that the designer of the project didn't lay his foot on the terrain. It's just that this branch is a strange combination of succeeding even and quite steep slopes and at the end there's a hill just in the middle of the course! At the moment diggers are trying to level that hill. We didn't see a cutting to Shiligarnika (for the 6-chair-lift). About any building in the area of Echmishte ("Dupkite") we can also say nothing because it is not in the view from the valley of Bunderitza river. It could be said that from the possible evils the minor one is realized. The most valuable forests in the region are not touched. Another question is if there will be placed in the upper part labels warning of avalanche danger, or things will remain the same (e.g., in conditions of fog and a lot of snow the rule is: if you don't know the region, can't ski well and if you go directly into the avalanches which are by metres next to the pistes - sorry, you shouldn't come skiing here!
M. Panayotov, 28.08.2002

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