The builders ask for a State pact to put tolls again

The Infrastructure Advisory Council of Catalonia (CAdIC) has urged that an agreement be reached between all the political forces to implement a “pay per use” system as soon as possible in the Spanish motorway and dual carriageway network that will put an end to the congestion, deterioration and accidents that have skyrocketed after the tolls were lifted, as explained by its president Joaquim Llansó.

According to Llansó, who chairs a council promoted by employers’ associations, civic entities and construction companies, payment for use “is requested by Europe, and there is a commitment from the Government of Spain to the EU to do so” which, in his opinion, creates the circumstances necessary to “propose a State Pact”.

Llansó assured that Spanish roads already accumulate a maintenance deficit of 9,000 million euros, according to the calculations of the National Highway Association. In his opinion, since the tolls were lifted, high-capacity roads are deteriorating, especially the lane on the right, where large trucks pass. “Now there is still money to carry out some maintenance due to the contributions of European funds, but there are challenges such as the electric car and the autonomous vehicle that will require huge investments that the state will not be able to finance.”

Juan Manuel Manrique, one of the Council speakers who presented the document, explains that the Council defends, as the EC does, that a vignette system not be applied, which would be a fee for the “right of use”, although they left The door is open for it to be a temporary measure, but a “pay per use” for the distance travelled, which allows mobility to be managed, and has a final destination.

In the opinion of the Council, “it should not be just another tax”, but should allow “both infrastructure costs (those who use, pay) and external costs (those who pollute, pay) to be recovered, which generated by users of the toll road”. In addition, Llansó explained, reinvesting in maintenance will create “a virtuous circle, because infrastructures generate economic growth.”

Manrique explained that the payment for use will not imply in any case putting back “barriers or toll booths, because there are many satellite systems.” In his opinion, in general, it is not necessary to build new roads to solve the current congestion, but a simple regulation of traffic. “If to avoid a toll another secondary road becomes congested, a toll would also have to be applied to that one. It must be a trial and error system, managed with technical criteria, not political ones”, he acknowledged.

José Solano, another of the speakers who wrote the report, lamented that now “we have an inefficient high-capacity network. We have the entire axis of Vallés saturated and we do not agree to build the B-40 that could solve it. We have European directives and recommendations and we do not dare to apply them, ”he lamented.

The payment for use, recalled Solano, “has to internalize the costs that the use of the infrastructure generates” for which he defended that it has to affect all users, including carriers, “and that the toll is passed on, as one more cost of transportation”. The expert recalled that “the sustainable mobility law that is being processed in Congress already introduces payment for use and even urban tolls. We must move forward in this direction, as all the countries in Europe are doing”

The Council defends the creation of consortium entities in each autonomous community, made up of all the administrations that own the toll road network, with a state managing body, unifying the management and toll model. In addition, Llansó claimed that the model be applied throughout Spain. “It cannot be that Catalonia, which was a pioneer in having tolls, will now be the only one that applies it.”

Solano explained that the cost of maintaining a high-capacity network is between 50,000 and 60,000 euros per kilometer, although it varies depending on whether the maintenance is “preventive or curative.” The rates that users would have to pay, however, are defined in the European directive itself that promotes payment for use and are based on the cost of the infrastructure (the cost of construction and maintenance) and the environment, and on the fact that they are not discriminate against or exclude any user.

The council stressed the need to reach a state pact between all political forces to meet the demands of the EU. “This issue should not depend on the change of political color, but on technical criteria. The party in government always considers that this measure burns it, and prefers not to undertake it so that the wear and tear is assumed by the one who is now in the opposition when he governs. And so we have spent years without doing anything, “lamented Llansó.