ARCHIVED - Spain to pay out 1.3 billion euros when toll charges end on the AP-7 motorway in Catalunya this year

The 340 kilometres from Tarragona to the French border will become toll-free after 31^st August

The Spanish government has confirmed in a document submitted to EU authorities in Brussels that it anticipates paying out 1,291 million euros to the company Abertis this year in compensation for the re-appropriation by the State of three stretches of the AP-7 motorway, which runs along the Mediterranean coast from Vera in Almería to the border with France and also includes a stretch of road in the Costa del Sol.

The three stretches affected are all in Catalunya, specifically from Barcelona to La Junquera, El Papiol to Montmeló and from Barcelona to Tarragona, and when the management concessions there expire on 31^st August the government has announced that they will not be renewed. When the contract to operate the road on a toll basis was modified in 2006 a clause was included which entitles Abertis to compensation if certain levels of traffic were not reached, and this being the case it is anticipated that the level of public debt incurred by the government will be affected, hence the need to inform Brussels.

For drivers the most important aspect of the government’s decision to regain control of these busy stretches of motorway, totalling 340 kilometres in length, is that toll charges will be removed, but the management of Abertis are aggrieved at what they see as the expropriation of the infrastructure after investments have been made in widening and improving it. The company reduced toll charges in anticipation of an increase in the volume of traffic, and it was in that context that the government agreed to make up the difference if traffic targets were not met.

Abertia have been claiming compensation of as much as 3,826 million euros, although the Supreme Court has ruled that the loss of traffic during the pandemic is not factor for which the government should be held accountable.

Other stretches of motorway in Spain where toll charges have already been scrapped in recent years include the AP-1 between Burgos and Armiñón in December 2018, and the AP-7 between Tarragona and Alicante and the AP-4 between Sevilla and Cádiz, both on 1^st January 2020, while at the end of August this year the AP-2 from Zaragoza to the Mediterranean coast is also due to revert to the State.