Central Bohemian region takes unusual step to improve poor state of roads

Authorities in Central Bohemia have come up with an unconventional remedy to improve the state of local roads. They’ve put the names and cell phone numbers of staff responsible for road maintenance online, hoping that public pressure will make them do a better job, despite less money earmarked for road repairs this year.

If you don’t like the state of the road you are driving on in Central Bohemia, don’t blame it on the governor. That’s the message the authorities are sending by putting the names and phone numbers of the region’s road maintenance supervisors online, so that they take the criticism of frustrated drivers instead.

The region’s governor and Social Democrat enfant terrible David Rath believes that this will put more pressure on the supervisors – and that they will be tougher on contractors hired to fix the roads. Central Bohemian region’s spokeswoman Berill Mascheková explains.

“Regional authorities are not satisfied with the current shape of the roads, and especially with the work of private companies that are supposed to repair them. This step is aimed at raising the personal responsibility of the repair management staff. Direct control by the general public is the best tool to make the companies to accomplish their task which they often fail to address at all.”

Berill Mascheková

With less funds allocated for road maintenance this year – around a 30 percent drop from last year’s 3.5 billion crowns – the authorities believe the 8,000 kilometres of road in central Bohemia can still be kept up more efficiently.

On the region’s website, people can look up the individual road and the name and contact of its supervisor. The only woman among them is Hana Konvalinková, who is responsible for road maintenance around the town of Čáslav, in the eastern part of region. I called her and asked whether she thought the system worked.

“I think it certainly does. Communication has improved but what usually happens is that mayors call us because people often complain to them and tell them about what they think is wrong. So we mostly talk to the mayors.”

But Ms Konvalinková says she has indeed received calls from angry drivers who wonder why the roads are not in a better shape.

“When this happens, I listen to that person and I try to explain the situation, whenever that is at all possible – that we can’t do everything. But people sometimes wonder why the road in their village is not fixed when in another village, we repaired it, or when we fix part of the road, why we don’t do the whole road.”

Ms Konvalinková believes that will less money, it will be extremely difficult to improve the condition of the roads. The authorities want to assess the system during the busy summer months, hoping the results will prove her wrong.