SUPER GO FOR SUPERHUB
Engineers broke ground today on the second largest infrastructure investment in the Federation in as many years after the on-going high speed rail construction schemes started last year.
The exciting Polkhan Superhub project was rushed through the Külmsaar and Terra Scotian planning process last month by means of the new approval powers granted to the Government through the first implementation of the Stimulus Legislation – first proposed by the President in her re-election manifesto three years ago. Having entered law last year, the so-called ‘Make It So’ Law was initially conceived of to provide the government with the powers to provide infrastructural projects with a guarantee of construction should such projects be needed to provide fiscal stimulus in the light of economic worries that were sprouting in mainland Rushmore. Such economic uncertainty never reached Polarian shores in the end, and the legislation wasn’t even required to push through the large-scale high speed rail expansion – the other project that the legislation was written up in preparation for – thanks to careful planning of routes and generous compensation settlements.
In the end it was an unlikely source that required the legislation to be called-upon, when the actions of Magnus Ragnorak, co-president of the WCC under the Polarian term of office, caused a major embarrassment to the internationally recognised Polarian logistics companies. A major contract – that of transporting the NSWC Signups micronation from the outgoing president-nation of Aguazul to a floating island-pontoon of Bjarnese design in the Franz Josef Archipelago – was unexpectedly awarded to transport teams from Falconwhereveryouare by Mr Ragnorak. With many of the famous logistics groups of the Federation still in the process of preparing competing bids for the contract when the announcement was made, the Polarian companies, so often trumpeted and feted around the multiverse by the Federal government trade departments, were forced to sit on the sidelines and watch as the Falconian teams received all the glory. A major embarrassment for President Iversen-Eklund’s trade initiatives, she acted quickly; resurrecting the plans put forward to the government by the Superlogisticians for a shipping and air freight superhub located near Polkhan, in the state of Külmsaar and Terra Scotia.
The Superlogisticians, or to give them their proper name, the Federal Tranportation Lobby Group, is a loosely connected but hugely powerful lobbying association made of the seven largest logistics and transport companies in the Federation (Sokhorosk Linii, MKNH, Langtid, VOCL Ltd, Heier PK, Redsea, and Hane Ferge; with close ties and associate memberships for parcel delivery group Trulsen and air freight specialists TERRAjet). They first put forward their plans for the Superhub last year – arguing that a heavy duty and purpose built port in the southernmost state of Külmsaar and Terra Scotia would make their companies a much more attractive prospect to foreign businesses as they go after not just transportation contracts to and from the Federation, but lucrative Rushmore-to-Rushmore traffic as well. It was thought that such a hub could provide a major stop-over point and relay station for shipping, the refuelling points in particular would be capable of adding significant range to traffic travelling over the vast Sea of Sibir from the Federation towards mainland Rushmore, enabling the boats of the Superlogisticians to travel much further much easier. The Superlogisticians are thought to employ as much as a fifth of the Polarian workforce when all put together, and their lobby group holds considerable sway within the halls of the Federal Government. However, President Iversen-Eklund dismissed the proposals in the name of international diplomacy, reasonably thinking that the placement of the Superhub so close to Külmsaar would be interpreted as an aggressive act by the leaders of Sargossa. Relations between Franz Josef City and Soluca have been cooling recently over the issue of Külmsaari sovereignty, and so the President blocked the development. She offered funding for an investigative survey in the waters off Juura as a compromise, seeing promise in the idea itself, but this was rejected by the Superlogistician; arguing that the natural harbours of the waters in the Natalis Channel and the existing rocky outcrop on which the project would be based made the site off Polkhan an infinitely more attractive location.
An artist's impression of the hub in action during the Külmsaari winter. The reflective ball is the highly polarised glass of the air control tower.
However, times change, and the major embarrassment to the Superlogisticians caused by Magnus Ragnorak’s unfortunate error of judgement lead to renewed pressures in the halls of the capital as the President juggled the prestige of the WCC presidency currently held by the nation with the job safety of a significant chunk of voters. As such, the Stimulus Legislation was dusted off and put into practice, with the work done by architectural and engineering firms Ingelsgruppe and Rausen not going to waste as the green light was given for the project to begin construction just two days ago.
The finished Superhub will be an air and shipping node the likes of which the Federation has never seen before, the largest port project in the whole of Rushmore, is projected to be amongst the top five busiest ports in terms of container turnover once it is completed, and will create roughly 500 jobs for Külmsaari workers in addition to the extra positions required within the Superlogistician workforces, and will go some way to boosting the flagging Külmsaari economy that had been suffering recently in the light of Terra-Scotia-centric-investment and alleged Sargossan over-fishing of the shared Sargossan Sea fishing banks that had previously meant either an enforced retreat for the Külmsaari fisherman into Federal waters or a series of dangerously overstretched sojourns even further into the shared international banks to the north-west in the Sea of Sibir.
An Ingelsgruppe rendering from the original consultation.
Ownership of the final infrastructure will be split between the State and the Superlogisticians, with each side putting up roughly 40% of the costs of the project. The remaining 20% of the funding was obtained through private investments (mainly from BlockCom, AalborgPettersen, and Torstebank, although there were some individual investments made available as well), but their reward will not come in shared ownership of the infrastructure itself, but rather in a share of the revenues generated by the company being created to run the finished project; the Federal Superhub Operations Company, or FSOC. Each of the Superlogisticians will operate their own dock and centre of operations on the Superhub, though each will bow to the ultimate port managers at FSOC, with space also made available in the ‘Federal half’ of the project for third-party docking space. Fuelling will be undertaken through expansion of the Terra Scotian oil-fields, with second refineries being built at both Islay and Invermuir to accommodate the increase in demand.
An Analyst's View
The President has moved shrewdly here, and she'll rightfully get the the praise. This is a massive project, and was just what the economy in that part of the Federation needed. The Superlogisticians hold considerable sway in the capital, and some commentators have remarked with surprise at how much of the final bill the government has managed to make them pay, saving the taxpayer thousands. This will be a hugely important scheme and hub of the Polarian transport in the future, and we should all look forward to its completion.
Karen Andreja - Industry Correspondent
The Sargossans have so far released no official reaction to the project getting a green light, and quite how Soluca is likely to take this trade competition and statement of ownership in the long term is yet to be seen, but this is now a major and hugely vital project for the Federation and it is understood that the will of the President will not be bowed, international protests or not. Federal sources are in fact so far unclear as to whether or not Soluca was aware of the development before it broke ground today, but in the current world it is presumed to be likely that they did. The future of shipping and the Külmsaari economy has been underlined with one signature from Iversen-Eklund, simultaneously keeping the largest lobby group of Polarian employers happy and righting the wrong done by the WCC co-president in one swift scribble of her pen, an act for which she is currently enjoying understandable plaudits. There has been resistance from environmental groups, of course, but their voiced fears of industrial megalomania on the part of the Government’s use of the Stimulus Legislation have been quelled somewhat by the promises of investment and creation of new environmental conservation areas in the Külmsaari hills and off the Forrairn Coast. A delicate political balancing act and environmental trade-off, yes, but the only major inhabitants of the rocky outcrop being used for the Superhub foundations are seabirds that already do very well elsewhere in the state and are in no long or short term threat of extinction. Well documented opposition to the project has also come from the surprising source of the Külmsaari independence and Sargossan Unity parties in the island group, claiming that the Superhub is just another example of a weak Polarian Federal Government that bows to pressure from its largest companies and pursues projects of increasing imperial megalomania. Such protests were thought to be blown out of proportion by sensationalist reporters in the majority of cases however, and now that construction is due to start the main voices against the project come from those with a view out to sea of the area, arguing that their views will be blighted by the heavy port off the coast.
If the Superhub is a success, Federal eyes are already looking at possible sites for similar projects in other key Polarian shipping nodes such as Northbrook, Landt Sibir, the Sea of Shodtlundt, the Sea of Three Kingdoms, Holtrecht, Hoor and Billinge, and even the feasibility of a military, icebreaking, or naval variation in the seas off Franz Josef City or Resolute and Aasiaat. Whether or not such hubs could be used for cruise and passenger air travel in the future is also a topic on the drawing board, and planning approval has already been granted for a site adjacent to the Superhub currently being built – a site that would exactly double the current capacity should the scheme prove as successful as is hoped.
Construction for the project is likely to continue throughout the winter, with a projected completion of two years from now.
The location of the development, with possible future expansion highlighted.
- New Gold Seam Discovered in Sibir, p14
Uncovered vein could keep mines "open for decades" - Orrstar spokesperson
- Terns Draw in Qazox, p35
Change of fixture "likely to have unsettled the players" - Pekarik
"Toughest match in group and we didn't lose" - Rasmussen
OOC: In the interests of fair RP attribution, the renderings are pinched, obviously, but the last image is one of mine.
