A cable car being built to carry spectators to the women’s Olympic Alpine skiing events in Cortina is in serious doubt of not being completed in time, prompting Games organisers to request school closures to ease the pressure on the Dolomite resort’s transport system.

The Apollonio-Socrepes lift is one of the most contentious pieces of Olympic infrastructure for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. Work on the system, designed to take spectators from the centre of Cortina d’Ampezzo directly to the slopes, began behind schedule, and some residents raised safety concerns about its location in an area prone to landslides.

Despite mounting doubts over the project, still unfinished a week before the opening of the Games next Friday, Simico, the state-backed agency in charge of Olympics infrastructure, said on Friday that work on the site was progressing according to schedule.

However, in a letter dated 29 January to the central government’s top representative in the Belluno province, the chief Games operations officer, Andrea Francisi, said Simico had notified organisers the previous day that the gondola lift would not be delivered within the planned timeframe.

In a statement on Saturday, Simico said work on the cable car was continuing and that safety checks required for the final commissioning were planned for the coming week. It said logistical problems such as school closures were not part of its remit. The Milano Cortina organising committee declined to comment.