The Generalitat of Catalonia changes pace and has opened the door to private investors to promote infrastructure. The Government of Salvador Illa is exploring options to develop highway or Barcelona metro projects through public-private collaboration, according to sources in the sector familiar with the process. It thus distances itself from the blockade of this type of initiatives established by the central Executive.
If realized, Catalonia will join other Autonomous Communities that are already resorting to public-private partnerships to build infrastructure, case of Aragon, Extremadura, Andalusia, Valencian Community, Cantabria or Community of Madrid. They all agree that Their governments are led by the PPyes ok In the case of Aragon, the Extraordinary Road Investment Plan (PIC) was promoted when the PSOE governed. with the late Javier Lambán at the helm.
The socialist Illa wants to follow in his footsteps and take advantage of the appetite that there is on the part of banks and investment funds to participate, hand in hand with construction companies, in infrastructure projects. It does so, like the rest of the autonomies, in a context of budget constraints by the obligations imposed by priority items such as health, education and social protection.
The restrictions on investing in the maintenance of existing infrastructure and in the construction of new ones also affect the General Administration of the State, but For now, the Government of Pedro Sánchez is barely using this formula -seven years ago put in the drawer, for example, the Extraordinary Highway Investment Plan (PIC) which intended to mobilize 5,000 million euros.
The Catalan Government has already found in public-private collaboration the way to develop an ambitious social rental housing programas the Community of Madrid, the Valencian Community and the Basque Country already do, among other Administrations, including, in this case, the central Government. Last October Illa announced a plan to promote 210,000 homes thanks to public-private collaboration.
In its strategy of making room for private investment to execute infrastructure, the Government has just create, within the Department of Economy, a new general subdirectorate of Support and Management of Public-Private Collaborationattached to the general directorate of Public Procurement. It will provide legal support and economic and operational advice to all the awarding bodies of the Generalitat to promote projects with the private sector.
Zero fatal accidents
This new unit joins the Technical Office of Public-Private Collaboration for Mobility and Logistics, within Infrastructure. This body – likely to end up being integrated into the new subdirectorate – has been focused above all on support regional concessions of transport infrastructures that are in force, but is now also analyzing, with the help of expert advisors, the implementation of new concession initiatives.
Directed by Jonatan Calafi, this body already has some projects on the table that were planned to be tendered as construction contracts and that could now be reconsidered as a concession. They focus, for the moment, on roads, above all, and on the Barcelona metroaccording to knowledgeable sources, who recall that in the past the Generalitat also granted other types of infrastructure such as police stations.
In the road sector, the Government explores using the concession model within the framework of its 2+1 highway program 2023-2030 with which seeks to reduce fatal accidents to zero on 418 kilometers of regional roads. This plan identifies, for the period 2025-2027, actions on 12 itineraries, totaling 115 kilometers, to introduce a third interspersed lane. Likewise, for 2028-2030, it includes works on 19 routes with a length of 276 kilometers. The 2+1 initiative involves the provision of a reversible lane depending on hours and demand. For this, the Administration has been set on Zipper dividerswhich allow reversibility quickly and without affecting circulation.
The Government is studying which itineraries have a place under a concession regime. One of the projects with the most options to be tendered through public-private collaboration is the section of the Eix Llobregat C-16 motorway between Berga and Bagàbudgeted at 240 million euros. This link, which will connect with the Cadí tunnel that operates with Abertis tolls, will have two lanes in each direction, although in the section to Cercs it will be a 2+1 reversible road. This is a very busy route on weekends for users who go to the Pyrenees.
Illa and his team are also analyzing replicating in the central section of Line 9/10 of the Barcelona metro what they already do in lines 1 and 3 and concession the stations. The works on the project are underway but with this the Generalitat “would be able to accelerate the work and without budgetary consolidation,” explain the sources consulted.
