My my, it’s all about the economy today!
The Junta has just announced that it is to “reprogramme the completion schedules” of three major road building projects across the province, and a further 30 across Andalucia, saving itself 817 million euros in the next financial year.
The Junta has said –firmly said- that these roads are not cancelled, simply delayed, although it refuses to say when it plans to restart the works. Contracts that have been awarded will stay awarded, but works will not commence nor will payments be made until a firm date is made. Works will recommence on a case per case basis, it seems. In some cases work had already started on these projects.
Rosa Aguiler, the Junta Honcho in charge, confirmed that the rest of the dual carriageway between Garrucha – Vera, the Roquetas bypass and the Almanzora motorway between Concepción and Cucador have all been put on indefinite hold, although this last may restart in the last quarter of 2010 – early 2011, if funds are made available and unspecified paperwork completed.
Rosa said that these projects have been put on hold because they are all not quite in a position to be completed – in all three cases, not all the land has been expropriated- and so the Junta prefers to delay them until the paperwork has been solved rather than continue with the works. However, the new private-public funding plans (whereby companies pay for the construction of the roads in exchange for lucrative, gold plated, long term maintenance contracts) will allow all these works to eventually be completed, she assures us, and she added that Andalucia will continue to grow at the strong pace of recent years despite economic troubles.
20 minutos | Ideal and others