The adjustment of the Spanish first-generation expressways to the new technical and safety standards passed on motorway regulation constitutes one of the key measures in the field of infrastructures policies. More particularly, the maintenance of existing road infrastructures and the homogenisation of the high capacity road networks are some of these top priority measures. On the other hand, current circumstances still impose the need to keep a tight budget policy so as to comply with the present Community convergence criteria on transport infrastructures. Owing to this fact, since 1996 the Spanish Administration has opted for new finance tools based on concessions granted to companies or on the system of delay or repayment schemes for infrastructure works. Among these tools, the authors focus on the so-called expressway management contract for services introduced in 2000. The new tool - which has not been applied so far - is aimed to maintain and improve conditions in first generation expressways - in need of far more control and updating - up to new standards required in highways. The main goal of this presentation is to introduce this new finance scheme, which will probably be in force at the time of the conference.
Samenvatting