EXCLUSIVE / Why the connection between Bulgaria and Romania, across the Danube, is of particular strategic importance

The North-South connection in Eastern Europe, in particular between Bulgaria and Romania across the Danube, is of particular strategic importance, Hristo Grozdanov, the organizing secretary-general of the conference and director-general of the Institute for Transport Engineering, told Gândul exclusively. He also spoke about the role of artificial intelligence in improving transport quality and safety, as well as about the implementation of European standards. The biggest infrastructure event in the Balkans – the Bulgarian National Transport Conference – will take place on 5-7 October at the Hotel Sol in Nessebar.

Interview with dipl. Dr. Ing. Hristo Grozdanov, General Organizing Secretary of the Conference and Director General of the Institute for Transport Engineering.

What is the goal of the forum?

The Bulgarian National transport infrastructure conference is the biggest annual conference on the Balkans. This is year it is the 16th Conference in a row. The main goal of the Conference is to establish strong connection administation – science – business which we believe is the key for the development of the transport infrastructure. Every year we discuss the „hottest” topics in EU and the World. This year the main topics will be Strategic infrastructure; AI and digitalization; Sustainability and standards.We will talk about the strategic infrastructure at the beginning of the Conference. Our main goal is to point the importance of the south-north connection is Eastern Europe, especially the connection between Bulgaria and Romania over Danube River. The Three seas business forum and summit will be on 6^th and 7^th of September in Bucharest, so our Conference is the best place to continue the discussions started during the Summit in Romania and we will do it.

In the scientific field I am very happy to announce that after almost four years of hard work our proceedings are included in IOP Conference series which are index in Web of science. It is a big success for us which shows that we have high level science and now it is up to us to implement the knowledge into the practice which follows from our main goal connection administation – science – business.

Which are the biggest challenges?

The transport infrastructure is public active, so when we are planning, constructing and maintaning it we must carefully examine the society needs. I personally believe that this is the main problem in front of the society, because we often see that the society is not happy with what is done or not done, this mean that the proffesionals and the government don`t cover their needs. The other point of view is that the society is not ready to pay for what they want. So my point is that we must include the society in the decision making process and try to explain them why we are planning the infrastructure the way are doing it and also try to understand why they want the infrastructure the way they want it. Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle but will not find it without proper discussion. That is why we are very open to NGOs and other kind of organizition to participate the Conference

AI and transportation – how can AI improve de quality and the safety

The AI have proven its possibilities in other industries. It is sure that it will help the transport sector too. The question is how and what we must do for the infrastructure in order to improve the quality and safety. We already see self driven vehicles and their development is exponential but the roads can`t answer with the same temp. So this is basically a problem “in our garden” and we have the obligation to make the roads suitable for the cars of the future. This is similar with what we talked about in the previous questions, we must understand that the roads are service for the society and we have to build covering all the needs. So this is my answer if we meet society`s criteria we will improve the quality and safety.

Strategic infrastructure – solutions for and European corridors

If you look on the map of the EU corridors you will clearly see what is missing. In the west of Europe there are very good connections between all the countries and their main cities, both south-north and east-west. If we look at the Eastern Europe you will see almost no connections. For example the trip by car from Sofia to Bucharest which is around 350km is more than 6 hours ( approximately 60km.hour ). The same trip betweem Paris and Brussels is taken for 3 hours and 30 minutes. When you are driving between Berlin and Bern or Paris and Madrid you have mediam speed of more than 100km/h. I will not talk about the trip by train because it is almost impossible to travel by train between countries in Eastern Europe. So the problem here is the missing infrastructure and what is what we want to talk about and of course what are the instruments to build it. Maybe the old maxima „All roads lead to Rome” is not as true as it was during the last 2 000years we need roads leading to Bucharest, Prague, Talin, Sofia and so on.

Standards – how cand be implemented European standards?

Our idea is not to implement EU standards but all EU countries to work together and having same standards. And when we are talking about the standards we are not talking only for the technical part but for what the road have to be. What I mean – if we travel from England or Portugal to the other part of EU – Greece or Finland we will travel thru different countries. Each of those countries have different regulations in some areas the differences are so big that it is difficult for the drivers to drive. Our idea is that when you drive between member countries the drivers must have equal perception to the road, everything have to be equal, the speed, the comfort, the safety and so on. To do this we need standards that are written by each member state and which are implemented equally in the EU.

Sustenability and transportations – Green Deal,  sustenaibles materials, zero emissions

Of course those topics are in the Conference. The Green deal is important topic for, the new sustainable and recycled materials also. Zero emissions are part of the automotive industry but we also have responsibility, because when we transform our roads to be suitable for the new cars, than we will have zero emissions cars. We understand that recycling and zero emissions are what the society wants so we will cover it in a professional manner.