As from the year 2000 planning for transport infrastructure in general in Spain, and specifically for State-run infrastructure, is governed by the so-called 2000/2007 Infrastructure Plan (Horizon 2010). This is a Government approved master plan covering all action relating to port, airport, rail and road infrastructure planned to be built by the 2010 horizon. The section on roads lists the high capacity interurban highways consisting of 5610 km of expressways and 769 km of toll motorways. The new expressways are designed to meet the territorial target of interlinking all provincial capitals by this type of highway in a deliberate attempt to break away from the excessively radial pattern of highways based on Madrid that currently exists (Map 1). The toll motorways planned are essentially in the form of access routes to cities that have expressways but that are already congested and where the high traffic demand existing warrants private funding for the new accesses and may even warrant construction of a new bypass under the same concession agreement but which is toll free for local traffic. In addition to the territorial target of providing a grid pattern for the high capacity network, the Plan endeavours to meet two other main aims - increasing safety and improving quality of service with the latter including the environmental variable, deemed to be responsible for average cost increases of 10% in the new roadwork planned, and the public information processes that lengthen the time required for commissioning the new roads, even though these processes achieve a greater social acceptance and better environmental integration for them. The White Paper on Transport Policy To 2010 proposes to intervene in policies designed to disassociate economic growth from transport demand, in an attempt to moderate economic growth in the road mode in favour of transport modes causing lower environmental impact. One of transport's most important overall effects is the emission of greenhouse gases, which is why the National Climate Commission in Spain evaluated the effects of the new roads covered by the Infrastructure Plan in respect of CO2 emission. It estimated that by the year 2010 road transport would be responsible for 90% of total emissions by the transport sector and that pollution from heavy commercial vehicles would double. As a result, it recommended eliminating congested sections and replanting or planting new areas along roads as a means of counteracting the problem, in addition to promoting high speed rail services as an alternative mode. All the roadwork covered by the Infrastructure Plan is evaluated in information studies, which compare different layout alternatives on a scale of 1:5000, broken down into stretches varying in length between 50 and 200 km, applying a multicriterion method that takes into account economic, functional, environmental and territorial factors. For the covering abstract see ITRD E135448.
Abstract