October the 27th, 2024 – Fury and disbelief has been evoked by state-owned company Croatian roads (Hrvatske ceste) devastating private land in which an olive grove grows.
Many things symbolise Dalmatia. The sea, the mountains, the lulling sound of the crickets in the Mediterranean pine trees in the scorching summer haze. Olives are another thing synonymous with the region, and for many people from Dalmatia – they’ve the amber liquid of life for centuries. Imagine then, the reactions to the brutal devastation by Croatian roads of an olive grove.
Croatian Roads (Hrvatske ceste) has since openly admitted fault entirely and stated that it will pay for the incurred damages, but for many locals who are tied to the olive, it simply isn’t enough.
As Morski writes, owing to requirements allegedly set out in the contracted works, the state-owned company Croatian Roads (Hrvatske ceste) tragically damaged private land without any approval or even prior knowledge of the owner. According to a report from Dalmacija Danas (Dalmatia Today), they allegedly openly admitted that.
They usurped 1,300 metres of agricultural land, destroyed three traditional dry walls and uprooted several old olive trees on the slopes of Kozjak in Kaštel Kambelovac. The reason for the devastation of this beautiful Kaštela olive grove is the installation of new pole positions for some transmission lines.
On October the 23rd, the owner of an agricultural plot from the area received some shocking information which informed him that his private land had been devastated by an excavator that his son found on the plot the day after. The owner couldn’t believe that someone could just come to a private plot and usurp it with absolutely no approval. Naturally, the owner allegedly called the police, according to Portal.hr.
The devastation of this Kaštela olive grove by Croatian roads (Hrvatske ceste) occurred during the evening hours. Luckily for the owner of the land, his diligent neighbours could not help but hear and notice the destruction of the old drywall and the olive trees, and were quick to call him. The luck in the accident is that the same excavator broke down during the destruction of 1300 meters of the plot. According to the owner of the land, some machinery at the scene actually suffered a technical issue and broke down, so they couldn’t take it away. As a result, the detection of the perpetrator was much easier.
Allegedly, some plots had to be cleared in order to reach the plateau where new power lines need to be installed so that the route from the Kozjak tunnel could be built.
the response from croatian roads (hrvatske ceste):
“Hrvatske ceste d.o.o. and Dalekovod d.d. concluded a contract for the performance of works on the relocation and protection of installations on the Vučevica connecting road along the section from km 0+813 to km 7+480. It was dated as the 9th of October 2024.
It was done in the presence of the installation owner HOPS d.o.o., and the contractor was introduced to the work.
The contract refers exclusively to interventions on existing high-voltage transmission lines and the dismantling of the existing ones, as well as the construction of three new 220 kV transmission lines. There is a valid construction permit for the aforementioned works: CLASS: UP/I-361-03/24-01/000010, URBROJ: 531-08-3-1-2-24-0026, dated as the 4th of October, 2024.
As part of the relocation, and for the purpose of delivering materials and mechanisation to the locations of the new high-voltage power lines, it’s necessary to build access roads, whereby the contractor is obliged to rehabilitate the plots of land through which the access was made and to compensate the owners for any damage they may have caused.”
