The Government will allow the Generalitat of Catalonia to be in charge of building two major road infrastructure works dependent on the State Highway Network. Specifically, the central administration will authorize actions to, under its supervision, advance the implementation of an entrance bus lane to Barcelona on the B-23 highway and improvement works on the same road between the city and Sant Feliu de Llobregat.
Likewise, the Generalitat is authorized to build the Ronda Nord, which provides continuity to the B-40 corridor between Terrassa and Sabadell.
Both decisions are included in an additional provision of the omnibus decree that the Council of Ministers approved yesterday and which is published today in the Official State Gazette.
The Ministry of Transport and Generalitat will sign an agreement so that the regional government can tender, contract, monitor and supervise both the works and the technical assistance linked to them. The Generalitat may also carry out the expropriations necessary to execute said works, according to the additional provision of the same decree.
After the signing of the agreements, it will be the Ministry of Transport that approves the studies and projects and will receive the works, and the Generalitat will be in charge of bidding for the contracts for the projects and the execution of the work. The central government will also make advance budget disbursements.
The objective of this decision is to “speed up the bidding and execution” of this infrastructure in Catalonia in two key infrastructures in Barcelona.
The collaboration between the State and the Generalitat to accelerate road works began a few months ago with the signing of several agreements for the execution of improvement actions on the AP2 and AP7. Now this collaboration is expanding.
The collaboration will also be extended to the bidding and execution of railway infrastructure in Catalonia, although the decree does not yet specify which ones.