Monday, 28 March 2011

The Ionian Highway and other funding problems

We should be grateful that the splendid Egnatia Highway is operational. Other motorway projects in Greece apparently face a funding problem, including the Ionian Highway from Ioannina to Antirio.

2 comments:

  1. Should I really regard the lack of continued funding for building the Ionian Highway and other Greek motorway projects as a problem. Is it not an opportunity? Some would regard the depression of the 1980s in Birmingham as timely. It halted the continued pouring of concrete for roads through yet more of an already depopulated city centre. When times improved a new idea about urban planning had emerged, making areas once designated for the automobile places where people could walk, cycle, play and even live in new city centre homes.
    http://www.streetfilms.org/mba-highway-removal/

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  2. Thanks for this timely and lateral-thinking input. I haven't done a cost-benefit analysis, and I do regret the scarring of mountain terrain. On the other hand, the Egnatia Highway is of immense economic and human benefit (think of the old Igoumenitsa-Ioannina-Thessaloniki road and the Katara pass), as well as enabling sick people from Corfu to get to hospital in Ioannina far more quickly and comfortably. You can't really cycle to hospital...Greece needs some good highways, but that doesn't mean it's right to bulldoze every donkey-track to provide access for someone who fancies building a new villa.

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