Spain needs €6.5bn road infrastructure investment, says SHA

Spain needs around €6.5 billion spent on its road infrastructure to bring it back up to ‘reasonable’ quality standard, according to a report drawn up by the Spanish Highways Association (SHA). The huge works’ bill is said by the SHA to be due to the deterioration of the roads since 1985. According to McKinsey, this investment could be reduced if tendering authorities made more effort when it came to project analysis. By improving the use of engineering services by 3% to 5% per investment, cost savings of
April 14, 2014 Read time: 1 min
Spain needs around €6.5 billion spent on its road infrastructure to bring it back up to ‘reasonable’ quality standard, according to a report drawn up by the Spanish Highways Association (SHA).

The huge works’ bill is said by the SHA to be due to the deterioration of the roads since 1985. According to McKinsey, this investment could be reduced if tendering authorities made more effort when it came to project analysis. By improving the use of engineering services by 3% to 5% per investment, cost savings of up to 40% could be gained.

Spain is increasingly distancing itself from the average investment made in engineering in Europe, as the government spends fewer funds on infrastructures despite their worsening state. According to Bricard Associates, Spanish investment in engineering comes to under 4.5% of total infrastructure investment, while the European average is 8.4%.
Road Structures Highway & Network Management

Related Content

  • ALARM Survey: UK maintenance backlog continues despite funding boost
    March 23, 2016
    Highways departments in England and Wales have yet to feel the benefit of the UK government’s commitment to spend €7.6 billion (£6 billion) on local road maintenance between 2015 and 2021. In fact, overall road budgets have dropped by 16%, according to the annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey of highway bosses in England and Wales, conducted by the Asphalt Industry Alliance. This is reflected in the increase in average budget shortfalls – the difference between the money needed to ma
    Read More
  • The US FAST Act: a job left unfinished
    April 4, 2016
    US roads and bridges are crumbling at an alarming rate as state governments wring their hands over the increasingly scarce money for repairs. Enter the FAST Act. But is it enough? US state transportation department officials, as well as highway contractors and operators, breathed a sigh of relief in December. For months the highways infrastructure sector waited anxiously to see where the necessary money for road projects would come from. For several years, the Highways Trust Fund – the usual way of paying f
    Read More
  • Kenya develops annuity road funding model
    May 8, 2015
    Kenya is introducing novel methods for funding its necessary road infrastructure development - Shem Oirere writes. Kenya has unveiled a new financing model for road construction and reviewed its design standards and construction methodologies, which forms part of a new strategy for the East African country. Under this new plan Kenya is planning to upgrade 10,000km of road, with these links featuring asphalt surfacing; the work being carried out over the next five years at a cost of US$2.8 billion. Despite t
    Read More
  • UK road maintenance budgets further stretched, says ALARM survey
    March 25, 2020
    Indications last year of an improving condition for the UK’s road maintenance have not been sustained, according to a new survey.
    Read More

Highlighted Content