The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, proclaimed this week what the central government’s roadmap is regarding roads: “End tolls when the concessions” for infrastructure have run out. This decision, reconfigured during the negotiation of the European funds addendum, makes Spain a very different place from the rest of the surrounding countries, starting with France and Portugal. On the national network of expressways, driving is practically free, except for a few highways, which implies an even greater challenge: how to pay for the conservation of these infrastructures in the medium and long term. There is only one option: the public budget.
In the last year, the Executive changed its strategy regarding road transport. During a good part of the last legislature, the Ministry of Transportation made progress in the implementation of a toll model that sought, mainly, for drivers to collaborate in the maintenance of the infrastructure through which they circulate, which would reduce tension on public accounts, and discourage a means of mobility, that of the private vehicle, to promote rail transport. This was agreed by the Government itself with Brussels and was reflected in the Recovery Plan. Progress was made on an Ineco project with KPMG, and construction companies and concessionaires glimpsed an emerging business. But the economic situation and inflation caused a change of plans. Spain renegotiated with Brussels, and the new toll model was discarded.
The measure represents relief for citizens’ pockets, but implies that the cost of road maintenance will continue to fall on public budgets. Seopan, the construction employers’ association, estimates the investment deficit at 18 billion. Iván Sánchez Saugar, partner responsible for the public administration sector at PwC Transacciones, highlights that, in effect, the decision to raise toll barriers entails limitations: “The budget is not flexible and can generate a significant lack of maintenance.” . The solution is not simple, the public accounts are not infinite, but the asphalt requires continuous conservation. It is the Government’s challenge for the coming years.
Fixed bridge the main lines of the General Directorate of Highways: “The road must be understood as a lever to contribute to sustainability and the improvement of the living conditions of citizens, since it has an impact on cities, structures the territory and conditions the daily life of the user. He spoke of “a paradigm shift” to “move from a management focused mainly on the development of new infrastructure to a management more oriented toward innovation and the provision of a quality public service from the existing infrastructure.” That is to say, Transport considers that it is not necessary to build more kilometers of roads without stopping but rather to improve the existing ones. This does not mean that there will not be new actions, but priority projects will be identified.
Regarding conservation, the ministry is aware of the challenge and that the investment is increasing. In this sense, since 2021 the State has been promoting new service contracting models in which the conservation of the pavement and the economic exploitation of already existing functional elements, such as service areas, and the execution of small works are put out to tender. . The future of the road also involves its digitalization. In this sense, administrations work on data management projects.
The Government will approve, expected to be in February, the Sustainable Mobility law, a norm that aims to establish the bases of transportation of the present and the future. In this sense, the intention is to continue advancing in the decarbonization of road freight transport, which is key to achieving the objective of climate neutrality of the economy in 2050. The law, Puente advanced, will include a new system of state financing of urban public transport that would replace the subsidies currently included in the general budgets.
