{"id":1864,"date":"2018-10-27T14:16:20","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T14:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/?p=1864"},"modified":"2019-09-06T19:49:06","modified_gmt":"2019-09-06T19:49:06","slug":"waiting-on-the-peljesac-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/?p=1864","title":{"rendered":"Waiting on the Peljesac Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A computer image of the finished bridge. It is high enough to permit cruise ships to sail under if they want to go to Bosnia-Herzegovinia.<\/p><\/div>\n

Did you know that Croatia is divided in two?  <\/span>That you can\u2019t drive from northern Croatia to southern Croatia without crossing Bosnia?  <\/span>Well, you can take to the sea on a ferry and go around Bosnia but that\u2019s about as slow and inconvenient as two Bosnian border crossings.<\/p>\n

The configuration is clearly the result of mapmakers driven by high-level political decisions.  <\/span>Bosnia-Herzegonia needed access to the Adriatic so the Croatian baby was split.<\/p>\n

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How Croatia would put itself back together with a bridge.<\/p><\/div>\n

Croatia has a long-awaited plan to put itself back together and it\u2019s finally coming to reality, though not without considerable controversy.  <\/span>The dream has been of a bridge to connect the two Croatias.  <\/span>The engineering challenge is considerably less than the financial challenge, so access to capital has provided a compelling reason to join the European Union.  <\/span>Croatia has done so as of 2013, making $400 million in EU \u201ccohesion funds\u201d available to it for this $500 million project.  <\/span>Croatia has drawn plans, taken bids and awarded a contract\u2014to China Road and Bridge Corporation, who was the low bidder by $84 million.  <\/span>Croatia\u2019s leader says the cost savings may be the difference in \u201cto build or not to build.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can you build a bridge in Europe with European Union funds using a Chinese construction company?  <\/span>The company plans to use low-cost Chinese labor housed on a cruise ship offshore and has a cozy relationship with the Chinese government.  <\/span>European construction laborers won\u2019t benefit much.  <\/span>China is trying to make friends and gain influence in Eastern Europe\u2014part of its \u201cRoad & Belt\u201d policy.<\/p>\n

Competing bidders have sued in EU court claiming the deal breaks EU rules but as of now the project is going forward.  <\/span>Meanwhile, Croatians wait aboard a ferry or at a Bosnian checkpoint for unification.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know that Croatia is divided in two?  That you can\u2019t drive from northern Croatia to southern Croatia without crossing Bosnia?  Well, you can take to the sea on a ferry and go around Bosnia but that\u2019s about as … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-1864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cycling","tag-croatia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/http-com.ft_.imagepublish.upp-prod-us.s3.amazonaws.com-029acdea-9be3-11e8-88de-49c908b1f264.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3QqGi-u4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}