Igls Renovation on Schedule: 2 years Construction Time and 28 Million Euros Budget

Innsbruck (FIL/10 Sept 2024) The official ground-breaking for the renovation work on the Innsbruck-Igls track took place in April 2024. Two years and almost 28 million euros will be spent on adapting the Olympic ice track at the foot of the Patscherkofel to the requirements of the international federations FIL and IBSF.

The combined bobsleigh, luge and skeleton track was built for the 1976 Winter Olympics and was getting on in years. The outrun and therefore the braking track was now far too short because the sports had continued to develop. A new women's and doubles' start will be built and the lower third of the track will be redesigned. The outrun can thus be extended and rebuilt from curve 13 onwards.

Two large bends will lead the track back uphill after the labyrinth. The new finish building will be built in the area of the kreisel. An architectural competition was held for the new finish building.

The new track will be built in the summers of 2024 and 2025 and will be connected to the existing track once the work is completed in 2025.
This will ensure operation on the old track in the coming 2024/25 winter season.

The city of Innsbruck, the state of Tyrol and the federal government will each share the costs equally.

The Managing Director of Olympia Sport- and Event Center Innsbruck, Matthias Schipflinger, expressed his confidence to the Austrian Federation: “The renovation and new construction is on schedule. The challenge is and remains the conversion of the existing building while keeping the traffic routes free for scouts, upstream residents, the agricultural community, etc. The next steps are the further construction of the track itself and the finish house according to the schedule and the completion of the new ladies' and doubles' start.”

Short 2024/2025 season in Igls

Winter operations in 2024/25 will be limited to the months of December and January. The second EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup will take place on the track in the second week of December. The construction work will essentially be stopped at the end of November 2024 and will start again at the beginning of February 2025. No work is planned during the 2024/25 winter season.

The new women's and doubles' start will be iced in and homologated from mid-November 2024, with operations starting at the beginning of December 2024. Homologation of the new ice track by the FIL and IBSF is planned for the beginning of October 2025 once all the construction work has been completed.

photos: FIL/Fred Zimny