tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post111115725245514133..comments2023-11-05T12:59:29.404+02:00Comments on CsĂkszereda musings: A Becs of a DriveAndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11294221123964774524noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post-1117552525874221302005-05-31T18:15:00.000+03:002005-05-31T18:15:00.000+03:00Hi Andy,The Bucharest-Pitesti highway was built by...Hi Andy,<BR/><BR/>The Bucharest-Pitesti highway was built by Ceausescu in the '70s. It was getting a bit embarrassing that modern advanced socialist Romania had no highways, and the Dacia factory was in Pitesti, so... ta da!... they built the highway from the car factory to the capital.<BR/><BR/>I'll badmouth it for you. It's a real, no-kidding highway, and far better than the usual crap two-lane roads. But it's suffering from 30 years of deferred maintenance, and has bumps, rough surface, and potholes.<BR/><BR/>The real surprise is the other highway, the new A2, which goes from Bucharest towards Constanta. First section was opened last spring, it's now about 2/3 finished, will be complete sometime next year. It's really nice. Smooth, wide, flat, fast. I counted one (1) noticeable bump in 120 km.<BR/><BR/>The Brasov-Bors thing was part of Adrian Nastase's "Sure, we're corrupt! Who cares? The economy's picking up, and we're going to join the EU!" policy. He figured that if he gave a huge, blatantly crooked contract to a major US firm, _but_ balanced it with an equally huge, blatantly crooked contract to a major EU (French) firm, everybody would be happy. <BR/><BR/>He was right, too. The current government's attempt to reexamine and renegotiate those contracts is pissing a lot of people off. Honesty may or may not be the best policy, but it ain't easy.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Doug M.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post-1115917382082497422005-05-12T20:03:00.000+03:002005-05-12T20:03:00.000+03:00About the highway. The European funded one has a d...About the highway. The European funded one has a different itinerary: Arad - Bucharest - Constanta (Bucharest - Constanta is almost done) part of the EU 4th corridor. The one you write about is the Brasov - Oradea, The way it was awarded to Bechtel, without a tender, displeased some UE officials (I also wonder how it will be financed). There is another highway (or rather part of a larger one) awarded, without a tender too, to Vinci, big French company. Apparently this displeased less the EU officials. There is also a story with another 1 billion euro contract awarded without tender to EADS, big EU defense company. These are few examples of how the former government approached the EU, and more generally the international interests of Romania.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com