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Spain's Highways

Started by kernals12, December 29, 2024, 08:38:01 PM

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kernals12

Spain, a country of 48 million people, has more miles of controlled access highway than Germany, which has 83 million people. They are able to build highways, and railroads and public transit lines, at a crazy low cost.

Here are some of them
The M-30 is Madrid's innermost beltway. The eastern part of it is divided into local and express lanes and is quite wide

The western part is a mere 8 lanes, but was put into a tunnel 15 years ago.


The B-20 and B-10 make up Barcelona's beltway. They were built ahead of the 1992 Olympics



The A-8 snakes its way through the Basque city of Bilbao



The A-7 serves Spain's Southeast coast, from Valencia to the Strait of Gibraltar.



Max Rockatansky

Your photos?  If not, got a link to the source?

kernals12

Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 29, 2024, 09:01:06 PMYour photos?  If not, got a link to the source?

Not mine. And do I really need a link to the source?

Max Rockatansky

#3
Quote from: kernals12 on December 29, 2024, 09:07:29 PM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 29, 2024, 09:01:06 PMYour photos?  If not, got a link to the source?

Not mine. And do I really need a link to the source?

I would think so.  Comes off as though you are trying the ole Steamed Hams approach with someone else's photos.  Off forum in groups I manage not citing is a source is something I don't tolerate.

kernals12


Max Rockatansky

Thank you.

Just so you are aware, a lot of us who manage road pages often have photos and our research taken without credit.  It used to be random people doing it but the problem has worsened with the advent of AI road pages.  I'm sure that you wouldn't appreciate it if someone ripped your road photos and didn't cite you as a source.

Chris

Spain was relatively late with highway construction. The country was severely affected by the Civil War, it was an economic autarky in the 1950s and had a very low standard road network into the 1960s.

A few toll roads were built between the late 1960s and mid-1970s, but the programme stalled after Franco died and Spain had more important things to deal with. Spain transitioned from being one of the most centralized countries in Europe, to become one of the most decentralized.

Large-scale autovía construction did not start until the mid-1980s, when the first generation of autovías were built, this accelerated particularly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when thousands of kilometers of new autovía were built in a short period of time.

Initial autovía construction focused on the radial routes of Madrid, by expanding the N-I to N-VI to four lane, controlled-access highways, though many had substandard geometry and even sporadical driveway access.

The political climate in Spain has long been favorable for road construction. Another factor is the Spanish geography, Madrid is the central city, but across the country are sizeable provincial capitals. This meant that Spain needs a much larger network of motorways to connect all cities than Italy or the UK.

The low construction cost (around € 3 million per kilometer in the early 2000s and € 7 - 9 million per kilometer in the 2010s) meant that Spain was able to afford to construct the largest motorway network in Europe, it overtook Germany and France.

kernals12

Quote from: Chris on December 30, 2024, 05:29:25 AMSpain was relatively late with highway construction. The country was severely affected by the Civil War, it was an economic autarky in the 1950s and had a very low standard road network into the 1960s.

A few toll roads were built between the late 1960s and mid-1970s, but the programme stalled after Franco died and Spain had more important things to deal with. Spain transitioned from being one of the most centralized countries in Europe, to become one of the most decentralized.

Large-scale autovía construction did not start until the mid-1980s, when the first generation of autovías were built, this accelerated particularly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when thousands of kilometers of new autovía were built in a short period of time.

Initial autovía construction focused on the radial routes of Madrid, by expanding the N-I to N-VI to four lane, controlled-access highways, though many had substandard geometry and even sporadical driveway access.

The political climate in Spain has long been favorable for road construction. Another factor is the Spanish geography, Madrid is the central city, but across the country are sizeable provincial capitals. This meant that Spain needs a much larger network of motorways to connect all cities than Italy or the UK.

The low construction cost (around € 3 million per kilometer in the early 2000s and € 7 - 9 million per kilometer in the 2010s) meant that Spain was able to afford to construct the largest motorway network in Europe, it overtook Germany and France.

Does anyone know how they build them so cheap?

Chris

Land is cheap in most of Spain. Spain is pretty sparsely populated outside of the cities. And agricultural land is of low value, in particular on the Meseta.

However that doesn't explain everything, the construct cost is also lower than almost anywhere else in Europe, including countries such as Poland or Romania. I don't know why that is. Spanish roads are not rudimentary, they have a lot of concrete ditches, large amounts of traffic signs, guardrails, etc. They don't save money on those items.

Spain has a huge construction sector. They have giants like Ferrovial, Acciona, ACS and Sacyr. They are also active overseas, both in Europe and the Americas.

Spanish road construction has taken a significant downturn over the past 15 years. The country was hit hard by the financial crisis and in 2010 they canceled nearly all construction contracts to avoid a spiraling budget deficit.

Ever since 2010, the amount of money allocated for road construction has been very low, usually in the order of € 2 - 3 billion per year to maintain and expand a 26,000 kilometer road network. Spain has been spending more on rail than roads since the early 2000s. Even during the peak of the motorway construction boom, Spain was already spending more on rail, and high-speed rail in particular. The conventional rail network of Spain is actually quite poorly serviced.



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