Word: railway
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...building of the Transgabonais, a railway through the nearly impenetrable jungles of Gabon, in West Africa, is one of the largest public works projects under way in the world today. At a cost of $4.5 million a mile, it is also one of the world's most expensive. In terms of technical difficulty, the Transgabonais rivals the 1,966-mile Baikal-Amur rail line that the Soviets are pushing across Siberia. The eight forest-smashing bulls and their crews are backed by 120 more bulldozers, 450 heavy trucks and 3,800 workers who shift and terrace earth to carve...
Begun a decade ago, the project is less than two-thirds complete. When it is finished, the single-track railway will cover 542 miles and form a giant Y across Gabon. "The main problem is that it is so big, so enormous," says Robert Clark, a Californian from a firm of consulting engineers overseeing the task. "It is an earthmoving job on a gigantic scale...
...power in Gabon 18 years ago. A trip from the capital, Libreville, to the coast and back again then took up to 40 days by car. To unify his domain and its population, estimated at 1 million people, Bongo was determined to create iron paths through the jungle. The railway would also, he decided, give access to valuable hardwood and deposits of manganese and uranium...
...economic freedoms allowed in Shenzhen have turned it into a go-go city where money is paramount. The police arrested more than 500 beggars last year, some of them adults who organized and dispatched children to panhandle at the city's railway station. The town's most popular pastime seems to be currency juggling, with the Hong Kong dollar selling up to double the official rate...
...ante for would-be raiders. With the steel and energy businesses reeling, Roderick last August decided to pick a fight with the United Steelworkers over pay-and-benefit concessions. The resulting 16-plant walkout, involving some 22,000 U.S.W. members, has been ugly at times; strikers have blocked railway spurs at mills to prevent the sale of steel from the company's stockpile...