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Demining the Long Bypass RoadBy Maj. Ladislav Ruzicka Sarajevo - One part of HQ SFOR Engineer Project 48 is the on-going construction of the "long bypass road" around SFOR's camp Butmir to ensure an access road for free movement of civilian traffic across the Inter Entity Boundary Line between Bosnia and Hercegovina (BiH) and Republika Srpska (RS). Before any building work could begin, the terrain needed careful de-mining. Spanish units dealt with mine survey of sections No. 3 and 4. They have deemed these sections clear. Engineers from three nations, Italy, Romania and the U.S., are sharing the task of de-mining Section 2. The Italian squad from MND- SE has arguably the most difficult terrain
on their sector. Because of this, four people must do the demining only
manual methods. It means that they have to check every 2.5 centimetre
of ground by using a prodder and mine detector. They started the demining
of their sector June 26, and they had checked 400m2 by June 30. Maj. Nancy Bergeron is the commander of the US Army Engineer unit in this demining. She does not foresee any big problems with the demining. But what is sometimes difficult is explaining to the local people " what we are doing and why they need to stay out of the area when we are operating our equipment," said Bergeron. It is also necessary to have good medical care available while de-mining. This is the responsibility of HQ SFOR CJ Med with personnel drawn from the German Field Hospital in Rajlovac. Their emergency medical service is located in the vicinity of the demining area. The person with overall responsibility for all of project 48 is US Navy Lt. Michael Lukich, Chief of Infra Projects at the SFOR HQ Engineer Branch. In his opinion, the demining of section No 2 will take about one month. According to Lukich the project of the "long bypass road" will continue with construction on section No 4 beginning July 5. Related article: Part of Project
48 the Long Bypass route |