Games are less than a week away, but many hotels aren't finished
SOCHI, Russia - There's still much to be done before the start of the Olympic Games in Sochi, now less than a week away.
Even as the city sidewalks begin to fill with athletes and tourists, some of those sidewalks have yet to be paved.
Building these Olympics has been a long, expensive road for the Russians – literally. The road leading up to the mountain venues is brand-new. The ski area is brand-new.
But it seems even spending $50 billion creating a spanking new alpine world were there was nothing before doesn't mean there won't be last-minute glitches.
They've built a whole new mountain village here from scratch. And from the outside, it’s impressive. The problem is, on the inside, some of it isn’t finished.
There's a last-minute scramble to get some of the hotels finished and ready to receive the Olympic hordes expected this week. And contractors are complaining their work force has been depleted because the authorities have moved migrant workers out of the area -- presumably for security reasons.
The manager of a Swissotel says he still hopes to be ready, but this can be a tough place to get things done.
"Certainly I have worked in areas where the construction speed was a bit faster than here, but at the end of the day we have reached our target to be ready for the Games," said hotel manager Oliver Kuhn.
Then again, he had originally hoped to open last month.
The bigger problem may be in how to keep all these hotels full once the Games are over and all the Olympic fireworks -- which they've been rehearsing -- are over.
