Re:A new road to an inaccessible land
by inglor_cz on Saturday July 03, 2021 @11:39AM
(#27722331)
I can buy a Porsche and have the best car in my neighbourhood, but does it make sense if I go broke from the purchase?
Same with Montenegro. The road does not make economic sense, either for Montenegro itself, or for a connection between Belgrade and Bar. The demand that would justify building and maintenance of such a behemoth in the wildest Balkan mountains just isn't there.
If the region was flat, there would have been a (much cheaper) highway a long time ago, but it isn't. It is an engineering hell, much like most construction tasks in the mountains.
Heck, even California dropped its plans for a bullet train from SF to LA because it was too expensive to cross the mountain ranges that stand in the way. And California is orders of magnitude richer than Montenegro.
Mountains are best avoided when building roads. If you absolutely can't, the viability of the project needs a long, hard look.
Same with Montenegro. The road does not make economic sense, either for Montenegro itself, or for a connection between Belgrade and Bar. The demand that would justify building and maintenance of such a behemoth in the wildest Balkan mountains just isn't there.
If the region was flat, there would have been a (much cheaper) highway a long time ago, but it isn't. It is an engineering hell, much like most construction tasks in the mountains.
Heck, even California dropped its plans for a bullet train from SF to LA because it was too expensive to cross the mountain ranges that stand in the way. And California is orders of magnitude richer than Montenegro.
Mountains are best avoided when building roads. If you absolutely can't, the viability of the project needs a long, hard look.