Large construction companies believe that Spain needs to invest more than 150,000 million euros to update its transport infrastructure. Some calculations have fine print, because they include investments that are already planned and others that were in the past but that, for some reason, are no longer on the table. Also, other investments necessary for the modernization of the road network, such as launching a network of electric stations.
The total figure calculated by the Association of Infrastructure Construction Companies and Concessionaires (Seopan) reaches 150,833 million euros. Of them, more than 85,000 million are already planned, as investments that will be made by the different administrations, especially the State. To this figure are added 57,000 million for the modernization of infrastructure and the rest, 8,600 million euros, for innovative projects.
For example, among those that are planned are the high-speed railway works, where Seopan assumes that an investment of 16,000 million is already planned, of which about 9,000 remain to be invested. Corridors such as those that will connect Palencia with Santander or Burgos with Vitoria enter there. “The execution of these almost 10,000 million will allow complete corridors that are not today, which can generate an economic benefit of 60,000 million in 30 years,” said the president of Seopan, Julián Núñez, in the presentation of the data.
Among those investments that are already contemplated or thought of, are the expansions of the Metro networks, where there are 15,000 million euros that have not been made. “The Metro was one of the biggest victims of the financial crisis,” indicated the head of Seopan. Also, another 24,000 million planned for the road network.
Among the innovators, which exceed 57,000 million, the construction employers’ association includes the implementation of an electric vehicle charging infrastructure, an ultra-high-speed public access network that reaches the entire network of highways and highways and that would mean invest more than 5,500 million euros.
Investments for climate change
Seopan also calculates how much it would cost to adapt the entire road network to climate change. Specifically, the actions aimed at adapting to the ecological transition amount to 2,083 million euros. In this figure, it contemplates its adaptation to extreme rains – such as DANA – which would entail more than 1,000 million euros allocated to the adaptation of the pavement.
Aside from roads, regarding investment in infrastructure for adaptation to climate change, Seopan points out that 42,000 million euros are planned for hydraulic investments until 2027, of which more than 30,000 are missing, according to their calculations. “We have sent the Government a proposal regarding the investment that we calculate, regarding the vulnerable situation of the Mediterranean basins,” said Núñez, which includes “more than 4,000 million euros, which should be a priority; plus other structures in the DANA area, which are more than 2,000 million.”
Regarding the area affected by DANA, Seopan criticizes the “eternal discussion on hydraulic works.” “We have to be respectful of the environment, but there are some areas where the only alternative is lamination at the headwaters, building four dams in lamination and adapting the ravines to save time when there are floods.”
A “letter to the wise men”
The Secretary General of Sustainable Mobility, Álvaro Fernández Heredia, has demanded at the same event that “a letter to the wise men” not be made because “planning” is relevant in investment in infrastructure.
“Paper holds everything” he indicated, and gave as an example that it is a priority to “finish high speed between Extremadura and Madrid.” “What differentiates one Government from another is the willingness to make it possible, the previous one let the environmental impact between Madrid and Oropesa lapse, which has delayed the entire project,” he argued.
He has also pointed out the need to deny hoaxes or grievances, such as pointing out that more is invested in Catalonia than in Madrid. “There is no territory where investment has not been made, only if we compare what was tendered last year with 2017, the tender in Catalonia and Madrid has tripled”, while in Andalusia “it has multiplied by four”. Only between January and October of this year, the investment has reached 7,000 million executed, 16% more than the previous year and double what was made in 2018 with the previous Executive.
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