Towards the Olympics

Legnolandia makes baffles for bobsleigh track safety

The Carnia company used wood from certified forests - Work in synchrony with the other site suppliers chosen by Pizzarotti

26 April 2025

2' min read

Key points

L’azienda
Sustainability
Synchrony

2' min read

One of the high-altitude construction sites for one of the landmark works for the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympics.

The Pizzarotti company, to whom the organising company entrusted the construction of the facility in Cortina, chose Legnolandia of Forni di Sopra for a strategic assignment: the construction and installation of the deflectors, fundamental elements to guarantee adequate safety to the track and which required an investment of more than 500,000 euro.

L’azienda

The new bobsleigh, skeleton and toboggan run saw a team of Carnians specialised in wooden works at work: Legnolandia is a group led by the De Santa family, founded in 1830: today, in addition to the Forni di Sopra plant, dedicated to the production of outdoor games and furniture, it includes Eurostratex of Sutrio, specialised in large wooden constructions, and Legnoquadro of Villa Santina, active in green building. Turnover in 2024 was EUR 16 million, with exports 10% and 75 employees. Among the latest orders is the cellar of the most important winery in the Basque Country, Bodegas Faustino, which cultivates 650 hectares of vineyards in the Rioja DOC region.

The industrial group from Carnia is no stranger to challenges, as it specialises in the construction of wooden structural elements in non-standard sizes and shapes. Its CV also includes the construction of pavilions for Expo Milano 2015 and the creation of the Polo del Gusto in Amatrice in the reconstruction after the 2016 earthquake.

Sustainability

But also driving the choice of Legnolandia was the environmental sustainability of its production, which is sourced only from certified forests. In the case of the bobsled track, it used larch wood taken from the Eastern Alps, mostly from Cadore and Carnia itself. The choice fell on this essence for its virtues of strength and durability, as well as aesthetic appeal. Its technical characteristics, therefore, make the larch particularly suitable for the environmental conditions and stresses to which the deflectors will be subjected during competitive activities.

One of the customer's requirements was the ability to work under tight deadlines, on a crowded construction site, in coordination with other suppliers and, on top of that, in extreme environmental conditions, much of the time below zero," explains Marino De Santa, president of the company founded by his ancestors in 1830. We are mountain people, used to living uphill, so it was a real honour for us to take on this challenge".

Synchrony

The crowning - this is the technical term for the intervention - covered the entire 2-kilometre-long track. During the winter just gone, a team specialised in creating special woodwork even in difficult environments was engaged, led by Legnolandia vice-president David Cappellari and working in perfect synchronism with the many other companies involved in the construction of the bobsled run. "A synchronism," Cappellari explains, "that goes from the daily progress surveys, to the transmission of data to our factory, which realises just in time, i.e. within a few hours, the elements that were to be installed the following day.

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