Kalistan

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Johnson declares his rural roads project to be a success
"More than 1700 miles paved and about 1200 graded and packed" said Johnson
Vrassan Plateau, Duchy of Vrassa
September 7, 5704


Infrastructure Minister Michael Johnson meets reporters on Duchy Road 158 west of Razar to show progress

The six year, ₭400 million Imperial Ruble project to bring paved roads to many rural parts of the nation is declared a success. "We couldn't have done it without the hard work and dedication of the Vrassan, Nevaran and Odufaran Corps' of the National Service Program, who have dedicated a lot of man hours to this major infrastructure project," said Her Imperial Majesty's Minister for Infrastructure and Transportation, Michael Johnson (Socialist-Kaliburg). "We now have more than 1700 new miles paved and another 1200 hundred graded and hardpacked to improve the transportation of tens of millions of Kalistani citizens. This will improve not only access to social services, but also economic opportunity for the people in our most rural Duchies."

Johnson came into office with a mandate to do something about the plight of Kalistan's rural populations, who were often cut off from life saving social services during the long winter seasons in northern Kalistan. "At the end of the day, access to a safe, reliable method of accessing basic services, including health and food services, in our towns and cities becomes a civil rights matter when that is denied, through neglect, to tens of millions of our rural residents annually. If we truly want settlement in our rural areas, we need to make it possible for people to get back and forth from our cities and town, and you aren't going to do this on roads which are annually washed out from floods or heavy rainfall that degrades the quality of the roads that remain otherwise open."

Johnson said that so much money in county maintenance will be saved by building permanent bridges over many valleys that frequently have issues with mud and flash flooding. "Snowmelt is a perennial problem," said Johnson. "But a simple bridge over a culvert that directs water under the road instead of just letting it go where it will will save the counties and duchies millions a year in maintenance costs by allowing them to actually maintain the roads instead of having to rebuild them in half a dozen places." He said this effort was long overdue. "I think the tendency in Terra is to just assume that things are done even if we never do them. Government by autopilot. But sometimes, the problems just get so bad that you have to finally just address them."

He said the initial outlay of ₭250 million was expended in 4 years, while he envisioned the project to be a 10-year long effort. "We started prioritizing which roads needed to be paved, based on service needs of the people in a zone. The initial ₭250 Million was spent paving more than 1700 miles of roads across these three Duchies, and went pretty fast. But in fact, we linked so many communities to County seats and major towns in the region with the black top that were actually able to request an additional ₭150 million for more modest improvement of our dirt roads, and most of those roads were not normal affected by mud or highwater. So we got by with hard packing and grading those roads, which by itself will improve safety and reduce wear and tear on vehicles travelling on them." Most of the dirt roads improved were in unimproved areas like the more remote reaches of the Odufaray Range, or the western Nevaran and Vrassan Plateaus near the mountains.

Her Imperial Majesty has ordered Michael Johnson to be Knighted in the Order of the Anantonese Empire at the rank of Knight Commander of the OAE. The honorific, said Johnson, was acceptable, while he had requested to not be made a peer. "How could I face the Socialists as a Baronet?" he asked. "Her Imperial Majesty was disappointed, but she was gracious and told me that Knight Commander in the OAE was a decent compromise to allow both me and her to save face. So, out of respect for the wishes of the Empress, I accepted." The ceremony officially knighting for now Mr. Johnson will be held in October.

@TheRepublic