How has the Georgian Military Road turned into hell?

The Department of Transport of the Georgian Ministry of Infrastructure has decided to open the most dangerous part of the Yerevan-Tbilisi-Vladikavkaz highway from the Gudauri Resort to the village of Kobi after long-standing considerations and talks with interested sides. This section is thought to be the most dangerous of the whole strategically important Military Georgian Road. The highway, which connects the South Caucasus with Russia, lies in the northeast of Georgia through the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range close to the popular mountain skiing resort of Gudauri. The road descends from the Cross Pass to the Kazbek region of Georgia (the only Georgian region which is situated on the northern side of the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range) to the North Ossetian part of the Russian-Georgian border.

The Gudauri-Kobi section is dangerous not only in winter when the road gets frozen and there is a threat of avalanches, but also in summer, because, as a result of frequent heavy rains, there is a threat of mudslides. Big trucks drive along high-mountain hairpin curves. Even if there is perfect weather, only the most professional and experienced drivers with firm nerves manage to cope with it: on the one side there are high mountains; on the other side there is a deep gorge. Every day hundreds of heavy cargo trailers drive along the narrow road in both directions.

This winter the road was closed several times, including for the New Year holidays. The Ministry of Infrastructure didn’t want to take a risk and stopped trucks close to the foothills; they didn’t reach Gudauri and Kobi. Huge traffic jams of hundreds of trucks appeared there.

A tragic situation occurred on the southern side. Georgian and Armenian drivers had been waiting for the opening of the road for weeks. They tried to get warm near fires, bought tea and bread from local residents for triple the price. They complained about “the indifference of people who tried to use the situation to earn money.” Messages about shameless speculations were published by the media, and the Georgian authorities (both the central and local ones) organized free meals and places to keep warm; in some cases they donated fuel and means of communication. However, drivers said that they spent several days in “real hell.” Some of them wanted to return, but they couldn’t because of the long traffic jams.

When the weather began to get better, and drivers began to complain, the Georgian authorities opened the road. Drivers had to sign acknowledgments that they had been warned about the dangers. The traffic police thoroughly checked the technical characteristics of trucks and didn’t let a truck go if it had no special devices, such as chains on wheels, which increase adherence to the frozen road. Trucks which had no such devices were sent back to Tbilisi or Yerevan. Attempts to bribe the police failed. The Georgian traffic police do not take bribes – this has been proved many times.

Nobody knows how to solve the problem or how long the annual suffering will last. There are no technologies in the world that can precisely predict mudslides and avalanches. One can only assume an increase or a decrease in the level of threat, but there is always a risk.

Why did drivers have no such suffering in the past? There were several other highways which connected the South Caucasus and Russia: through Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Azerbaijan. These roads are also situated in high mountains, but they are much less dangerous and much more comfortable from all points of view. Today they are closed to Georgian and Armenian trucks due to unsettled conflicts. And drivers have to spend weeks on the road, counting on the mercy and infinite goodness of God.