The Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, ‘Spain Can’, will guide the implementation of 140 billion of European funds through 2026, thanks to the Next Generation EU, recovery instrument, of which, approximately 80 billion will be spent in the form of transfers and the rest through loans.

The effort to mobilise the nearly 80 billion euros in transfers will be concentrated in the first three years (2021-2023), maximising their impact on the rapid reconstruction of the economy, before using the loans to supplement the financing of ongoing projects.

The ultimate goal of the Plan is to contribute to repairing the economic and social damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic through calls for proposals, public-private partnership projects and direct investments governed by European guidelines.

The Plan is structured around 4 guidelines, 30 components and 10 urgent lever policies: the urban and rural agenda and the fight against depopulation; resilient infrastructures and ecosystems; fair and inclusive energy transition; Administration for the 21st century; modernisation and digitalisation of the industrial fabric and SMEs; recovery of tourism and promotion of an Entrepreneurial Spain; a pact for science and innovation; reinforcement of the capacity of the National Health System; education; new care economy and employment policies; promotion of the culture and sports industry; and modernisation of the tax system.

According to the Spanish government, the mobilisation of such a large volume of resources opens up an extraordinary opportunity for the country. It will not only allow us to overcome the crisis and recover jobs, but will also facilitate the modernisation of our economy, enabling a green, digital, inclusive and social recovery.

The Plan is inspired by the 2030 Agenda and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, representing an opportunity for the Spanish Government not only to overcome the crisis and recover employment, but also to modernise the economy

Next Generation EU, an unprecedented innovation effort 

The Next Generation EU funds are the response to the COVID-19 crisis, which has been a challenge of historic proportions for Europe. The EU and its Member States have had to take emergency measures to protect the health of citizens and prevent the collapse of the economy. This has required an unprecedented effort and an innovative approach that will drive the alignment, resilience and transformation in the European Union.

On 21 July 2020, the European Council agreed on a temporary exceptional recovery instrument known as Next Generation EU for the amount of 750 billion euros. The Recovery Fund ensures a coordinated European response with Member States in order to address the economic and social consequences of the pandemic. The funds can be used to grant repayable loans and non-repayable transfers. These amounts will be spent over six years, until the end of 2026. The portion corresponding to repayable loans must be repaid by 31 December 2058.

Challenges for the Ministry of Transport 

The Plan contains actions in the areas of transport, mobility and the urban agenda for the period 2020-2023, including direct implementation actions and aid programmes.

The MITMA is expected to manage three specific components of the Plan related to transport, mobility and the urban agenda:

• Component 1: Shock plan for sustainable, safe and connected mobility in urban and metropolitan environments..
• Component 2: Implementation of the Spanish Urban Agenda with the Urban Rehabilitation and Regeneration Plan.
• Component 6: Sustainable, safe and connected mobility.

To guarantee the effectiveness of the Plan and ensure efficiency in the development of the different projects, last February the MITMA launched the first calls for expressions of interest in order to achieve a more detailed definition of its components, through the knowledge of the real interest of the market in the proposed measures and the incorporation of the needs of the sector with a high impact on the ecological and digital transformation, efficiency and economy. In the words of government Minister José Luis Ábalos, “we must take advantage of the momentum of the recovery and European funds to face the challenges of digitalisation and sustainability in mobility, housing, building and infrastructures in the coming years and modernise our productive fabric”.

Ábalos has stated that within these programmes, autonomous communities, local entities and companies will be involved, through lines of aid for issues within their jurisdiction, such as housing, town planning and transport.

Accordingly, in the transport and mobility components, the Plan seeks to accelerate the implementation of low-emission zones in municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants or provincial capitals; to promote the transformation of transport towards zero emissions; to reduce the use of private vehicles in urban and metropolitan areas, prioritising collective public transport and active mobility, thus contributing to the objectives of modal shift and, finally, to promote the digitalisation of the activity of public transport services. A sustainable and digital transport support programme for businesses will also be launched.

In terms of housing, the minister announced the renovation of homes in metropolitan and rural areas during the Plan period, as well as the promotion of the renovation of public buildings and the local action plans of the Spanish Urban Agenda.

The aim of all this work is to finance projects that will enable a rebalancing of the modal split of national transport towards more sustainable modes, reduce the sector’s high share of pollutant emissions and make use of available digital and technological advances. According to the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, in 2018 transport was responsible for 27% of total greenhouse gas emissions in Spain, making it necessary to promote multimodal transport that contributes to reducing environmental impacts. Another cornerstone to work on is improving the competitiveness of Spanish companies through advances in digitalisation, artificial intelligence, big data and e-commerce.

A big opportunity for the Infrastructure, Transport and Housing sector

The Recovery Plan is vitally important for the infrastructure, transport and housing sector. It is a lever that will enable the challenges of digitalisation and the sustainability of mobility, housing, building and infrastructures to be addressed in the coming years, modernising Spain’s productive fabric. To this end, it is vital to ensure effective implementation measures in order to facilitate the achievement of the Plan’s objectives. For this purpose, MITMA has created a Technical Support Office for the Plan in which Ineco collaborates by providing expert advisory services.

The Office has a multidisciplinary team of professionals who will advise and oversee the management, monitoring and coordination of the development of the programme and will provide the means needed to carry out the management of the grants, optimising them as much as possible.

The MITMA has created a Support Office for the Recovery Plan, comprising a multidisciplinary team of experts who will advise and oversee the management, monitoring and coordination of the development of the programme

In this regard, Minister Ábalos highlighted the steps already taken towards “streamlining public procurement and management, in accordance with European law and the unwavering commitment in the fight against corruption”. Furthermore, he pointed out that “we are counting on the autonomous communities and local city councils. We envisage the co-management of European funds, consistent with the aims of the Plan”.

The Technical Support Office, through the MITMA, will provide support in the coordination, integration of all information, management of competitive calls for grants, monitoring and control of direct management grants, document management and communication with the outside world, including the Office of the President of the Government of Spain and/or EU authorities, among others. Specialists from a variety of disciplines, mainly engineers, architects, economists and lawyers, as well as administrative staff, will be involved in the different areas of development. Its role includes supporting the Secretariats-General of the MITMA in the areas of transport and mobility, infrastructure, urban agenda and housing.

The Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) of Costa Rica has extended the contract with Ineco for the administrative, technical, legal and environmental management of the Transport Infrastructure Programme (PIT) for another 32 months, until 2023. The programme, financed by two loans from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), for a total of 450 million dollars, includes ten strategically important actions on roads and ports (see ITRANSPORTE 62). After winning the international tender held by the MOPT and the IDB in 2016, Ineco is acting as the Programme Execution Unit, in charge of planning and monitoring all of the technical and administrative tasks, in close collaboration with the Ministry.

According to the MOPT, the contract has been extended to adjust to changes in the planning of PIT actions, to which it has added three more road projects: construction of road links in Taras and Cartago, doubling of 2.4 kilometres in La Angostura, in Puntarenas, and extension and rehabilitation of 70.8 kilometres of the Northern Inter-American Highway, between Barranca, Limonal and Cañas. The PIT, which is part of Costa Rica’s National Transport Plan 2011-2035, includes seven other projects to improve and expand roads in different parts of the country and three works in ports.

Over the last decade, Costa Rica has undertaken several action plans to improve its transport infrastructure, an objective with which Ineco has been collaborating since 2004 with work that has included a modernisation plan for the airport network, a National Transport Plan and a feasibility study for the implementation of a rail transport system in the metropolitan area of the capital, San José (see ITRANSPORTE 50).

Improvement programmes for all transport networks continue, and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport is now working on a new one, known as the Transportation Infrastructure Programme (PIT), financed by two loans from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to the tune of 450 million dollars. To carry out all administrative, technical and environmental management of the projects, the Ministry, in collaboration with the IDB, issued an international call for tenders which was won by a consortium formed by Ineco and Acciona. Since mid-2016, the consortium has been responsible for the comprehensive management of the programme, which includes infrastructure projects of strategic importance for roads and ports which will complete and provide continuity to previous ones.

This is the case with the design of the upgrading and widening to four lanes of three stretches of the RN-1 Northern Inter-American Highway between the towns of Cañas and Barranca. This section is part of the Inter-American Highway, which is the name for the Central American section of the Pan-American Highway, an extremely long network of roads measuring 48,000 kilometres in total that runs the entire length of the continent from Alaska to Ushuaia in Argentina. The Costa Rican section of this road is of great importance for the internal mobility of people and goods. It crosses the entire country in two large sections, known as the Northern and Southern Inter-American Highways, and the PIT includes several design projects aimed at different points along this important road.

Since 2004, Ineco has collaborated on several programmes to improve Costa Rica’s transport infrastructure

In terms of the Northern Inter-American Highway, the plan is to widen approximately 70 kilometres of road to four lanes on the Cañas-Limonal, Limonal-San Gerardo and San Gerardo-Barranca stretches. Also included is the construction of hard shoulders, pavements and pedestrian crossings in populated areas, crossings for wildlife and bicycle lanes. The MOPT, with the support of consortium staff, has met with the residents of the area to inform them about the projects, hear their questions and suggestions and promote road safety measures. This action will provide continuity to another one that started in 2016 on the 50.5-kilometre stretch between Cañas and Liberia, which was widened to four lanes in a previous programme, also financed by the IDB.

KEY PROJECTS.
The PIT includes work on strategically important roads and ports located throughout the country. / IMAGE_RAQUEL HERNÁNDEZ (INECO)

At the other end of the road, on the Southern Inter-American Highway, the PIT includes another important project: the upgrading and widening to four lanes of the 93-kilometre stretch between Palmar Norte and Paso Canoas. 75% of the international trade between Costa Rica and Panama passes through this city of approximately 11,000 inhabitants, with half of the city belonging to each country. The location of the border here means that road traffic of people and goods in both directions is intense: according to the MOPT’s 2017 figures, an average of 7,297 vehicles pass through this point every day. In this case, the Ministry also met with those affected by the project.

The programme includes projects for road upgrades and widening in other parts of the territory as well, such as the 40.7-kilometre stretch between Birmania (Upala) and Santa Cecilia and La Cruz (Guanacaste) in the north. The works include improvement and adaptation of the stretch, including resurfacing, the installation of hard shoulders, drains, new bridges, improvements in road signs and installation of bus stops on the section between Birmania and Santa Cecilia; and the upgrading and/or widening to two lanes of the bridges on the road between Santa Cecilia and La Cruz, all on the RN-4. The designs are currently being finalised.

In the centre of the country, the PIT is considering designs for two interchanges (links), namely those in La Lima and Taras, located at the entrances to Cartago, Costa Rica’s second largest city and an important industrial zone, dedicated above all to the technological sector and the manufacture of medical supplies. Freight transport activities and proximity to the capital, located only 24 kilometres away, cause congestion in this area, which the new links would alleviate.

THE INECO-ACCIONA TEAM. The team performs ‘programme execution unit’ tasks and is responsible for the planning and monitoring of all technical and administrative work.

To the west of the capital is the Nicoya Peninsula and the Gulf of Nicoya. In one of the countries of the world with the greatest biodiversity, this sparsely populated area has two national parks and a large number of nature reserves for wildlife and other protected areas, as well as beaches and islands of great scenic and natural beauty which attract tourism. The PIT includes two design projects that would improve both land and maritime connections on the peninsula: the upgrading of the 25-kilometre RN-160 road that joins the towns of Playa Naranjo and Paquera and improvement of the facilities of the ferry terminals located in both communities. The design includes resurfacing and improvement of the geometry of the road by reducing the steepest gradients. Drains, wildlife crossings, three new bridges and a bicycle lane are also planned. In the towns, the plan is to build pavements and adapt the characteristics of the road to the urban setting with facilities such as pedestrian crossings and bus lay-bys.

maritime mode

Maritime transport is also essential for Costa Rica in terms of goods: the PIT includes projects for  upgrading and reinforcing the breakwater in Puerto Caldera, the most important port on the Costa Rican Pacific coast and the second largest in the country; in 2016, 5.5 million tons of goods, mainly grain, fertiliser, raw materials and flour, passed through it in bulk and in containers. It is also the main entry point for importing vehicles from Asia. It is connected to San José by Route 27, a 90-kilometre toll road managed by a concession company since 2006.

The PIT includes plans for upgrading and reinforcing the breakwater in Puerto Caldera, the most important port on the Costa Rican Pacific coast and the second largest in the country

This action will join a series of modernisation and widening works not included in the PIT which will expand the current capacity and reduce vessel waiting times. All of this needs to be included in the Pacific Coast Master Plan, which is also part of the PIT.

Ineco’s work

In order to ensure that all of the designs are carried out on time and, that they comply with all technical and environmental requirements, the Ineco-Acciona consortium acts as an overall manager and carries out a wide variety of administrative, technical, legal and environmental tasks, in addition to technical and economic-financial control and supervision.

Another one of the tasks of the consortium as the “execution unit” of the PIT is social management, which involves, for example, organising meetings with owners and residents, both to inform them about the projects and to hear their petitions and suggestions. These meetings also emphasize another very important aspect: road safety.

The internal operation of the programme is governed by the principles of the Project Management Institute, and progress is monitored continuously using a  series of applications of the Programme Execution Plan (PEP).

Roads and ports, vital for Costa Rica

Ferry moored in the port of Paquera. / PHOTO_ JEFF MOORE (FLICKR)

In a mountainous territory measuring only 51,000 km², reduced land distances and difficult terrain mean that road transport is preferred over the railway. The road network has increased in the last 10 years by 7,470 kilometres, reaching more than 42,800, of which around 8,000 kilometres are state owned and the rest regional (cantons). Congestion, road accidents and the need to improve facilities and maintenance are the main problems, as set out in the 2015-2018 National Development Plan. Periodic reports, such as that by the National Laboratory of Materials and Structural Models (Lanamme), part of the University of Costa Rica, in 2017,  reveal that, although the situation of the road network as a whole has improved, only 7.8% is in good condition and 42.5% (2,170 kilometres) is ‘poor’.

At the same time, the geographical situation of Costa Rica in the Central American Isthmus, with coasts on two oceans, means that its ports are of great importance, particularly for exports. The country has two main ports: Caldera, on the Pacific, and Limón-Moín, on the Caribbean. The latter’s main business is goods traffic, especially agricultural –bananas, pineapples, coffee, etc.– and cruises. The positive evolution of the economy, which grew from 3.7% in 2015 to 4.1% in 2016, has increased the demand for port services, which is why facilities need to be expanded and improved in order to prevent delays. The country has other ports such as Puntarenas (fishing and cruises), which has a cabotage service between the towns of Paquera and Playa Naranjo on the Nicoya Peninsula. Other important ports are Quepos and Punta Morales on the Pacific.

Improvement of transport routes has been, since ancient times, a constant quest for the survival, wealth and development of peoples. With the creation of the European single market, having an interoperable transport network became one of the basic foundations to make economic relations between member states possible. The aim was to have modern infrastructure for the transportation of passengers and goods, held together by common legislation and technology that would exceed the simple juxtaposition of national roads. Thus began the trans-European transport routes, called TEN-T corridors, which comprise transport by road and railway, including waterways and seaports, as well as the airport network. Also in this category are smart transport management systems, like Galileo, the European system of satellite radionavigation, or the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS).

In the 1980s, the EU began to establish which priority routes where greatest management and financial efforts would be directed, with the aim of facilitating communications, mainly between the main seaports and the large industrial areas and logistics centres of EU countries. On the basis of the studies conducted came the nine major Core Network Corridors (CNC) which structure Europe. Due to Spain’s outlying geography within the European continent, two of the nine corridors run through it: the Atlantic Corridor and the Mediterranean Corridor.
Subsequently, European Union Regulation N.º 1315/2013 established the specific alignments and nodes that make up each corridor, as well as the technical requirements necessary to have a solidly structured, homogenous, multimodal network that provides the backbone of European mobility in place by 2030.

The studies on the Core Network Corridors, conducted by consortia of consulting companies in the Member States, include analysis of demand, traffic forecasts, identification of improvements to transport networks and services, environmental impact analysis, innovation methods, etc. The analyses of these studies enable the projects and means necessary to meet the technical requirements set out in European law to be established. This must be implemented by Member States under the supervision of the European Commission.

Studies and work plans for each corridor

In 2014, a total of 265 projects were identified for the Atlantic Corridor, of which approximately 40% were railway projects, 24% were ports and 23% intermodal. In the case of the Mediterranean Corridor, in the 2014 study, 300 projects were identified, of which 44% were railway projects and 20% involved ports.

Since 2015, the EU has promoted the preparation and implementation of new work plans with specific actions to give impetus to the Atlantic and Mediterranean corridors, two projects considered to be top priority, in which Ineco has participated very actively since the origins. Proof of this is to be found in the previous studies on the EU corridors, as well as studies of the Vitoria-Dax, San Sebastián-Bayonne and Figueres-Perpignan railway connections, and the current studies of the Atlantic Corridor and the Mediterranean Corridor up until the end of 2017.

When the lists of projects and methods of each corridor are drawn up and the targets set out by the European Commission are met, they must be put up for political consensus among the various Member States, central governments and the regions, as well as cooperation and understanding between the various state and private agents involved. This is why the Corridor Fora and Working Groups, regular meetings that take place at the European Commission’s headquarters in Brussels, to which all stakeholders are invited, are very important. In the Corridor Fora, the consultants present the main progress from the corridor studies and open debate is held on the most important issues, offering attendees the possibility to respond or make comments. In the case of the Working Groups, specific technical issues are discussed, for example border matters, aspects relating to urban nodes, ports, logistics terminals, etc. in sessions with fewer participants, directed solely to the agents involved in each case. Both in the Corridor Fora and the Working Groups, the role of the consulting teams is fundamental, as they are coordinators and integrators to ensure that the studies are conducted holistically, prioritising the objectives of the corridor over individual interests.

Projects and European subsidies

The projects selected for each corridor and the European subsidies awarded to them are decisions of key importance both for the actors involved in international trade –infrastructure managers, shippers and logistics operators– and for the economic development of the Member States. Good evidence of the interest surrounding this is provided by the 2,800 transport companies and the 22 European ministers who attended the TEN-T Days 2016 conference, held in Rotterdam in June. The European Commission’s actions have objectives in the short (2020), medium (2030) and long term (2050), and 2050 is the final year of development, by which goods transported by land are projected to increase more than 50%.

Both the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea have enabled distances to other continents to be shortened thanks to their sea routes, made possible by large engineering works such as the Panama and Suez Canals. The European ports of both port fronts compete to have the infrastructure and logistics terminals necessary to assume the load of the Panamax and Post Panamax vessels which transport goods containers from Asia, Africa and America.
To manage this entire potential load, the ports require installations, technology and the land connections necessary for its rapid distribution to the population and industrial centres in the interior. At the same time, the EU created the concept of “highways of the sea”, short-distance maritime routes between ports that assist in decongesting roads. Finally, the corridor work plans seeks to gradually implement the use of clean energies and fuels that enable pollutant gas emissions to the atmosphere to be reduced.

The Mediterranean Corridor

The Mediterranean Corridor comprises more than 3,000 kilometres, which connect the eastern half of the Iberian Peninsula with the Mediterranean side of France, north of Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary, before finishing at the border with Ukraine. According to official data in 2014, the regions along the Mediterranean Corridor comprise 18% of the population of Europe and contribute 17% of gross domestic product.

Mediterranean Corridor

Functionally, one of the most significant challenges of this corridor is efficiently connecting the main seaports of the Spanish Mediterranean coast (Barcelona, Tarragona, Valencia, Cartagena and Algeciras) with central Europe. As such, the aim of the most important activities is to connect Spain’s ports with an international standard gauge of 1,435 mm, alter the rail network so that trains of up to 740 m can run, and remove bottlenecks. Many of these actions, those which affect the section between Castellbisbal and Almería, are currently in progress and/or the project preparation stage, in which Ineco is also participating actively. Another key aim is to build an east-west multimodal transport axis.

Additionally, the construction of an east-west multimodal transport axis has been planned to benefit and enable economic relations in southern Europe, where some of the most important urban centres are located: Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, Marseille, Lyon, Turin, Milan, Venice, Ljubljana, Zagreb and Budapest. To make this east-west axis come to fruition, the major projects centre around eliminating the current lack of continuity in border crossings between countries, especially between Spain and France (Figueres-Perpignan), France and Italy (Lyon-Turin) and Italy and Slovenia (Trieste-Divaca). The future high speed Lyon-Turin section involves building a 57-kilometre base tunnel, which will be one of the longest railway tunnels in the world. Base tunnels are one of the largest European investments to ensure the railway’s competitive advantage over travel by road and consequently a road-rail modal diversion in especially sensitive areas like the Pyrenees or the Alps, geographical obstacles that strongly condition this corridor.

The consortium commissioned to conduct the Mediterranean Corridor study comprises PwC, Ineco, SETEC and Panteia. PwC is the consortium leader and is responsible for maintaining an up-to-date list on projects worked on by Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. SETEC and Panteia are responsible for French and Hungarian matters, respectively. Ineco shares responsibility for keeping an up-to-date list of Spanish projects with PwC Spain, providing its railway and air transport experience. Spain is a key player in the Mediterranean Corridor, as 45% of the railway corridor traverses our country, spanning the Algeciras-Madrid-Barcelona-French border, Barcelona-Valencia-Almería and Almería-Antequera-Seville sections. Ineco also leads the part relating to innovation in task 3b of the study, in which expansion of the list of Mediterranean Corridor projects is analysed, paying attention to more cross-cutting aspects.

Since in the first studies presented in 2014, 300 projects were identified, the aims of the Mediterranean Corridor consortium members centre on defining, prioritising and estimating the most essential activities, among which what is sought is to enable goods to be transported by railway rather than by road. It is calculated that, with total implementation of the corridor in 2030, 40 million tonnes of goods could be transferred from road to railway.

The Atlantic Corridor

The Atlantic Corridor links the Iberian Peninsula ports of Algeciras, Sines, Lisbon, Leixões and Bilbao with Paris and Normandy, and continues to Strasbourg and Mannheim. It would therefore be an efficient export route for goods bound for eight seaports of the Core Network (Algeciras, Sines, Lisbon, Leixões, Bilbao, Bordeaux, Le Havre and Rouen) where the large global trade ships arrive from America and Asia (via the Panama Canal) and Africa and Asia from the Mediterranean (via the Suez Canal and the  Strait of Gibraltar). Additionally, the cities and logistics centres on the Atlantic Corridor route or its environs would benefit from the service of this corridor, enabling and stimulating their importance in international trade.

Atlantic Corridor

Ineco currently participates in the study of the Atlantic Corridor for the European Commission in a consortium led by Portuguese consultancy TIS together with the companies EGIS, Panteia, M-FIVE and BG21. In addition to providing the information relative to Spain, Ineco has a lead role in defining the list of Atlantic Corridor projects, a job that requires identifying and analysing corridor projects in progress or being planned, gathering information from the agents involved in the projects (in the case of Spain, we might highlight the Ministry of Public Works, ADIF, Puertos del Estado (Spanish State Ports), AENA, the Autonomous Regions, private agents, etc.) on the projects’ scope, timeframe and investment needs, a key aspect to specify and establish subsequently the prioritisation of activities in the corridor.

The Atlantic Corridor has an excellent network of roads, which are almost all highways. There is partial interoperability of the system of road tolls, with various projects underway to fully implement them in the corridor. As for rail transport, some aspects such as single-track lines, the lack of electrification, or Spain and Portugal’s distinct track gauge and its alteration to match the international standard gauge (1,435 mm), are significant obstacles to the development of goods transportation. Also worth noting as other hurdles to climb in the corridor’s railway network are the partial absence of the ERTMS and the need to adapt infrastructure to allow trains of up to 740 m.

The European Commission has emphasised the need to solve access from ports to other modes of transport, particularly the railway. At the port of Algeciras –the largest of the entire corridor by volume– reports underline the essential importance of the electrification of the line and alteration of tracks and terminals to admit the aforementioned 740-metre freight trains.

Other proposals are the improved navigability of the River Seine between Paris and Benelux and access to the railways from all airports along the corridor. Only Paris-CDG (Roissy) Airport meets all the requirements of Regulation (EU) N.º 1315/2013 and has a long-distance railway link. Paris Orly and Madrid Barajas Airports link to the suburban railway and metro; those of Porto and Lisbon only with the metro; and Bilbao and Bordeaux do not have railway links.