[Windflier]

"But once the first, challenging 41 km stretch through mountains north of the capital is completed, the government faces a difficult choice."

And that is...?

[BBell]

So is this a long term plan by China to get countries around the world in debt to them? If it is it’s working.

[P.O.E.]

“This highway is a big deal in Montenegro. It reminds people of Tito and the days of grand socialist projects in the region,” said academic Mladen Grgic, referring to former Yugoslavia’s long-time communist leader Josip Broz Tito. “But it’s a trap. Now that it’s been started, the politicians can’t stop it – no matter how harmful it might be. And frankly they don’t want to,” said Grgic, author of a 2017 study on the highway.

In related news:

"Cuomo resurrected the decades-old idea of linking Long Island to Westchester, Connecticut or the Bronx via a bridge or tunnel across the Long Island Sound in 2016, pledging to fund a feasibility study in his State of the State address that year.

In January, the Department of Transportation released the completed study, which found an 18-mile tunnel from Long Island to Rye or Port Chester in Westchester County is technically feasible but would carry a hefty price tag of anywhere from $31.5 billion to $55.4 billion.

"It would be underwater," Cuomo, who is seeking re-election this year, said in his 2018 State of the State in January.

https://www.lohud.com/story/news/politics/politics-on-the-hudson/2018/06/28/long-island-westchester-tunnel-dropped/743821002/

[The_Media_never_lie]

Must read later.

[Ron/GA]

This is interesting. I bet the resolution is that China will take ownership of the port in exchange for loan forgiveness or interest reduction. In any event, China gets a port on the Adriatic Sea. Not a shot fired.

[Drago]

They are all worried about an 80% debt-to-GDP ratio?!? Try 105% for the USA! This project sounds a lot like the CA Jerry Brown HSR debacle!

[marktwain]

The U.S. did similar things, on a smaller scale, in central America.

The roads are not maintained, the bridges collapse, the pavement deterorates, and the temporary access allowed pirate loggers to deforest the areas.

Overall, a disaster with almost no benefit.

[marktwain]

The U.S. did it mostly without any loan guarantees.

[BobL]

“This one found the highway was viable, according to the government. But this study has never been made public and attempts by Reuters to see it were unsuccessful.”

This always seems to happen when you get SHIFTY projects like this, and certainly the same for the vaunted “Public Private Partnerships”, which is also mentioned in this article.

Just HANG UP THIS CRAP and shine light on the projects. There are plenty of well-qualified road planners and they can tell tell you, pretty damn accurately, whether the plan is a white elephant. And, as the article states, that was the case here - but this secret little study (and lots of bribes, no doubt) is what they relied on.

[dfwgator]

scores of Chinese workers are building a state-of-the-art highway through some of the roughest terrain in southern Europe.

"Dock that Chink a day's pay for nappin' on the job."