The state will continue to manage the highway Alicante ring road, AP-7, during another ten years and will also freeze rates for next year “given the current economic situation”. In this way, the government does not allow this road to be re-tendered, which it had to undertake along with eight other highways in 2018. bankruptcy of relevant private concessionaires.
In particular, the Council of Ministers gave the green light this week. renewal of the agreement held by the General State Administration. State Road Transport Infrastructures Association (Seitt) for the management of these roads. A decade-long renovation, that is, the ring road will remain in the hands of the public until 2032.
New agreement for the management of recovered highways It will allow Seitt to complete pending investments and optimize its organization and management.. Thus, the reform, modernization, renewal, adaptation of tunnels, lighting, capacity increase, connection, branch or intersection construction actions required to keep the infrastructure in optimum road and circulation conditions are foreseen in this set of roads and all information sent by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda is foreseen. These digitization and sustainability actions to incorporate existing technical advances and achieve safe, sustainable and connected mobility.
Some actions to be financed through fee collection users and Ministry capital contributions up to the maximum 128 million Euros between 2023 and 2025 to accelerate implementation and close the gap created in those years.
In addition to the Alicante ring road, Seitt runs the radial lines R-2 from Madrid to Guadalajara, R-3 from Madrid to Arganda del Rey, R-4 from Madrid to Ocaña, Navalcarnero’ from Madrid. either he’s running the R-5. M-12 Axis Airport, AP-41 from Madrid to Toledo, AP-36 from Ocaña to La Roda, and AP-7 from Cartagena to Vera.
Freeze Rate
On the other hand, the Council of Ministers gave its approval. toll freezes valid for these roads, “given the current economic situation”. Thus, the prices of these highways have not changed since they were taken over by the state in 2018. In addition, the new operating agreement will allow discounts to be applied for environmental reasons or to improve service level.
Alicante ring road entered operation in December 2007 In order to reduce the daily saturation the A-70 is exposed to as it passes through the provincial capital. The concessionaire became Ciralsa, a joint venture between ACS, Abertis and GlobalvÃa.
The problem is that its opening in December 2007, the beginning of the economic crisisCausative predictions will never come true Where it was built, as with most of the second-generation highways that came into use at the same time. The highest traffic volume was recorded in 2008, when it reached an average daily density of around 10,000 vehicles.
However, with the outbreak of the economic crisis, these figures were gradually reduced. hit rock bottom in 2014, with only 5,303 vehicles per day. From then on, the volume of traffic on the roads began to increase, until with the advent of the pandemic, it fell back to just 4,966 vehicles per day in 2020. reaching 6,421 users per day.
Thus, only five years after its opening, the company filed for bankruptcy and In 2018, the then Ministry of Public Works took back ownership of the road, integrated into the publicly traded company Seitt.
300 million rescue packages
If the highway is in the hands of the State, it will be obligatory to compensate the person who built the highway for the so-called damage. Financial responsibility of the administration, ie the value of existing infrastructure. In the case of Ciralsa, the last calculation made by the Ministry of Transport last June is: 302.7 million the amount to be paid for this reason.
Specifically, the department, chaired by Raquel Sánchez, estimates RPA 276.6 million for executed and non-depreciated work and RPA 74.1 million for expropriations, totaling more than 350 million. However, from this amount, the value of the investments required to achieve “perfect delivery of the facilities under absolute normality conditions” should be deducted, some works reaching 18 million; and also compensations already paid to those expropriated by the Administration, amounting to a total of 15.6 million. Likewise, the ministry calculates that another 14.4 million must be held to face possible pending payments, which the State should assume responsibility for these expropriations.
Source: Informacion
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