Railway boss Vyacheslav Steklyevich had just seen the first train roll over a new bridge he oversaw being built, a 10-meter stretch of iron and concrete that was only the beginning of the hundreds of kilometers of train track still needed around the island. It was, Steklyevich conceded, just a drop in the ocean compared to the huge building works happening across the country -- and it was obvious what the main difficulties ahead would be.