In the pages of La Vanguardia on February 21, 2009, the Rodalies de Catalunya plan approved by the Council of Ministers of President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was reported, which planned to spend 4,000 million euros to build 25 new kilometers of roads, unfold 80 kilometers and build nine stations. Not a single new kilometer has yet been built or anything has been unfolded and only one of the nine planned stations has been built. In fact, one of the last major relevant works by Rodalies in Catalonia dates back to the 1970s, when the train was brought to the old airport terminal, and since the last century there have hardly been any relevant projects.
The attached information details a fortnight of emblematic works with delays, some of decades. That is why the very low execution of the State budget in 2021 in Catalonia (36%) has caused a new political storm increased by the fact that in Madrid the execution has been 184%. In euros it means that the community of Madrid received 2,086 million, almost triple that of Catalonia, where 740 million arrived.
Although the Ministry of Transport led by Raquel Sánchez blames the low tender in 2020 on the pandemic, sources consulted explain that the basic problem is that the State budgets are artificially "inflated" to meet political commitments, but then the technical and human means to execute them are not provided. From the ministry they hope to turn this exercise around. They give as an example that in Rodalies last year 600 million were tendered and this year 525 million until May. After the tender, in a few months the works will begin.
The director of the studies service of the Chamber of Commerce, Joan Ramon Rovira, affirms that it is normal for 80 or 90% to be executed and adds that when it is below 50% – as is the case in Catalonia – it is usually necessary because the budgets are oversized with respect to the means. What happens in Catalonia – he adds – is that the historical series always shows low budget executions: 60%. It shows a structural problem regardless of who governs and that occurs in both highways and railways.
The Official Chamber of Contractors of Catalonia (COCC) has been analyzing the data for years and has detected that budgets are indeed artificially inflated year after year with the same work that never gets executed. In the B-40 orbital highway, the estimated final cost of the execution is 264 million, but it has been budgeted so many times without it having been carried out that if the 15 budgets in which it has appeared are added, they yield a budget of 1,337 million. This fictitious endowment multiplies the real cost by five. "There is a kind of deception because a work comes out that must be carried out in four years in 15 different budgets," says Joaquim Llansó, president of the COCC. “It is a problem of total inefficiency.”
Obviously there are also political reasons. Sources in the sector recall that the new rail accesses to the airports of Barcelona (new terminal) and Madrid were even but when the real estate crisis of 2008 arrived, the government of Mariano Rajoy chose to paralyze the El Prat project, but not that of the capital. Today, Barajas has the infrastructure in operation, and Barcelona does not.
Looking ahead to this year, in order for Catalonia to be able to recover what was not spent last year, 160% of what was budgeted should be executed. One of the problems in achieving this is that Catalonia lacks large investment projects beyond the current plan of 6,000 million Rodalies. By giving up the expansion of El Prat airport, there is nowhere to spend more than 1,000 million a year. This circumstance will aggravate the gap with Madrid since there they have agreed on the expansion of Barajas.
On the road side, there are no major relevant projects because no new highways are planned in Spain until the announced state pay-for-use model is defined.
