Hvid recalls entering through the back door of the Bulgarian State Railways building to meet with the railway director, when a man rushed up with a flustered expression.
"He told us there was a red carpet and a welcoming committee waiting for us out in front," Hvid recalls with a laugh. "He was completely beside himself."
Chance of a lifetimeThe scene in Sofia was just one of many bizarre, but memorable moments for the COWI team hired by the EU to draw the strategic transport corridors through the former eastern European countries.
The project had come into COWI’s hands thanks to its good relations with the EU, at a time when the borders between East and West were opening, says Stig P Christensen, who worked closely with Hvid on the project. But there was also a recognition that a unique opportunity had arrived.
"A new order for Europe had come into being," explains Christensen. "It was the chance of a lifetime, so we put everything else aside to be the first movers as the need for our competencies arose."
A tight deadlineWith only six months to complete the project Hvid, Christensen and others crisscrossed the region, talking to traffic ministers and gathering information about roads, railways and other forms of transport.
The idea was to present recommendations about which corridors should be established to foster trade and passenger traffic where the Iron Curtain had stifled border traffic for 40 years.
"We were met with open arms," says Hvid. "You could ask for some information and a fortnight later, you had a thick report delivered."
The long runChristensen acknowledges that the financial return on that first infrastructure project was limited, but the conviction that this would imply a lot of downstream activities for COWI provided backing both within the team and COWI management.
"Under normal conditions using so many resources and so much time would not be accepted, but the cause was obvious and we had to go ahead," he observes.
Pioneering spiritThe hard work paid off, however. Amongst others, the EU's transport directorate applauded the team's analysis, and the conclusions presented in the final report eventually were incorporated into the Trans-European Network, the EU plan for how to integrate transport and infrastructure across the continent.
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, COWI has established a Central and Eastern Europe Region which has some 600 employees in six countries that once lay behind the Iron Curtain.
Uzi Frank, uzif@cowi.com
Published: 09.11.2009
