Some More Transportation Related Things

Monday was filled with transportation events. Here's what went on...

Utilizing the most primal mode of rapid transportation, Caleb and I went running along the Malše River with Aleš and the missionaries for the last time. Running along the river is the thing I believe I will miss the most about life here. We set out at 6:30 a.m., ran 2.5 km, and stopped at the gigantic oak tree reverently referred to as the Tree of Life. We were about to do our Canadian Pushups when Aleš announced that on the way back we would be doing time trials for the one mile to the bridge. We still did our pushups (only 2 sets of 12 - each Canadian pushup is a combination of two pushups and then hiking your legs in under yourself and standing up, reaching hands to the sky and doing a heel lift). Then we ran. I didn't want to, it was really just succumbing to peer pressure. Aleš got the best time. Caleb beat me by three seconds. We were a sight, seven guys all hunched over at the end of the bridge, pale and wheezing.

Then I visited the office of the regional department of transportation. Aleš' sister works in the right of way group and arranged my visit. I met with the head of the design group there. This was far out because it looked just like work back home...the people dressed the same, there were stacks of maps and plans around, the VOIP phones had the same ringtones, the HVAC system didn't even work well. Most of the discussion was learning that they do things about the same as we do in Minnesota (for the major roads, the county roads that I so like to talk about are not their responsibility). Here are some interesting things...

• he did not have data on Vehicle Miles Traveled (a measure of total system utilization)
• nor did he have a full set of crash stats - they only get info on specific locations from the police when there is a concern (we are spoiled in MN by having one of the better crash reporting systems in the world).
• There are several roads around Ceske Budejovice that have over 20,000 vehicles per day that are two lane. 
• On a road on the north edge of Ceske Budejovice, but still in the urban area, 30% of the vehicles are heavy commercial. This is astoundingly high. If we get 18% on a rural stretch we recognize it as having lots of trucks. He said that the initial growth in traffic after the borders were open was mostly trucks traveling through from Germany to the south.
• They design for 20 years and their concrete structures are similar in thicknesses and base materials to ours.
• They have a similar process of identifying environmental concerns, public discussion, and municipal consent.
• Investment decisions (which roads to build) are made at the national level (which would be like at the state level for us when you consider land area and population).
• They allow longitudinal utility installation in the right of way, but most utility companies get their own easements adjacent to the right of way. 
• Road construction costs are through the roof here. One project that consisted of 6 km of 2-lane and 6 km of 4-lane and 26 bridges (lots of bridges), cost $120 million. That's a lot. I don't know how big the bridges are though.
• One thing I have observed is that they rarely use box culverts, most small bridges are slab spans.
• Utility costs can account for 20% of the project cost.
• They do no design in house - all the environmental work, design, and construction is done by contract.
• They are building a lot of roundabouts. In this fellow's opinion it was because they are the fashion, not because they necessarily solve the problems. He said most municipalities push for them, especially at the entrance to town. Interestingly, in MN it has been the state DOT that has pushed roundabouts for safety and intersection capacity reasons and the cities have needed to be prodded. 
• Compensation for land is based on a government established standard pricing that is not based on market price. Appraisals are used for buildings, land that contains resources such as trees, etc. They pay 70 Kc per square meter for rural land for small roads and 100 Kc per square meter for rural land for the freeway. There are 4,047 meters squared in an acre, so that is over $20,000 per acre - way more than the market rate for land.

It was a nice visit and got me excited to go back to work. Really.

Our last transportation odyessy was learning that airspace over southern Bohemia was closed due to ash. It does not affect flights out of Prague though. However, the British Airways cabin crew strike will affect flights. Fortunately, it will not affect our flight from London to Chicago or Chicago to MSP. Unfortunately, our flight from Prague to London was canceled. After reviewing our options and talking to the British Airways representatives in India for a while, we have changed our itinerary. We wanted to keep the last two flights the same and go the night before, but they "are unable" to pay for a hotel in London. So, we'll take the 12:15 p.m. flight from Prague. Go to London. Go to Chicago. Sit in Chicago for 4.5 hours camped out at the British Airways desk (they would not book us on an earlier flight with an airline that is not their partner and would not tell us how much our refund would be if we cancel that leg and book our own - they said we'd have to talk with our travel agent). Then we fly to Minneapolis arriving at 11:45 p.m. where the Taylors will be waiting to give us a ride to Mankato.

In another annoying complication, Kristine had a communist-style customer service experience yesterday. Six weeks ago she went to the phone company store to cancel internet access effective this week. They said they couldn't do it in the store and gave her a number to call. She called and was told that none of the English operators was available and please leave a message so someone can get back to us. She did. A week later she called again. Same thing. No one ever got back to us and so she went to the store yesterday. They fellow (a nice guy) tried to give her the English number, but she instead took the Czech number. She sat in their office while all the people in line listened to her explain the problem, be told that it was not their department, and transfer her to someone else. This was repeated four times! And the last person, disregarding her pleas to not be transferred yet again, transferred her to the English speaking number...The people in the store finally just took the information and faxed it to their HQ. We tried later to send a nasty gram, but, on the website, all of the write to us links only take you back to the list of phone numbers - except for the comments on the website link - so I sent them a note in both (bad) Czech and English saying their phone customer service stinks.

We got together with the Chrdlovi and Tučkovi and Jarda last night for some headcheese and hanging out. So we said goodbye (though we'll see most of them again today).

Today is packing and cleaning. Tomorrow we go up at about noon.

I just check the British Airways website. The courts have prevented the strike from taking place. They are reinstating some flights, though our critical one still has not been.

Have a good day.

Peter