The Ministry of Transportation takes positions in the face of the potholes that its plan to repair and preserve 5,000 kilometers of road has experienced since August. Two months after paralyzing the receipt of offers for a specification that was appealed before an administrative court by companies in the sector, Minister Óscar Puente made official two movements in a single day in view of a ruling that is expected in November. On the one hand, the appointment of a new general director of Highways and, on the other, the approval of three contracts for as many specific road works to which 70 million euros will be allocated given the impossibility, at least for the moment, of approving an investment of more than 1,600 million.
The Council of Ministers last Tuesday confirmed the appointment of Guillermo Llopis as the new Director General of Highways. Belonging to the Corps of Civil Engineers, Canals and Ports of the State and with previous experience in the Ministry, he will return to it from the Headquarters of the Highway Demarcation of the Valencian Community, where he was responsible for managing the effects of the DANA. Although he must address other issues, Transportation affirms that his appointment responds to the fact that "he is the best at this time" to lead this department and, among other issues, also to "resolve" the large operation that Puente announced in April to repair 5,000 kilometers of roads.
The plan remains paralyzed since on July 31 the Ministry decided to suspend the process of receiving offers in a public tender called for this. It was his response, "with good judgment", in the opinion of the sector, to the appeal that the Association of Infrastructure Conservation and Exploitation Companies (ACEX) presented one day before and after knowing the specifications before the Central Administrative Court of Contractual Resources (TACRC).
Most economical offer, the main criterion
They denounced the Ministry's design of the bidding conditions, considering that the fact that the price of the works, the economic offer, was the "main" factor without taking into account others such as the experience, technical capacity or innovation of the companies, turned these public contests into a kind of "auctions." ACEX recalls that, in this way, a European directive and the Public Sector Contracts Law were contravened, against price being the priority factor because it could lead to offering at such low prices that it would cause "deterioration" of the service, "lower quality of employment" and "loss of innovation."
Although Transport suspended the deadline for submitting offers, it did so one day after the companies appealed and did not prevent the TACRC from accepting the precautionary measure that ACEX had requested and suspending the contracting procedure.
Since then there have been no more movements and the companies are still waiting for the TACRC to rule on the merits of their appeal, in a process that has also occupied the Spanish Confederation of Freight Transport, due to its concern about the state of the roads - which increases the danger behind the wheel but also the costs of fuel and vehicle repairs - and which the PP sees as the origin of the dismissal until this summer of the general secretary of Land Transport, Rocío Báguena, within a major restructuring that strengthened the General Directorate of Sustainable Mobility.
Companies in the sector estimate that the TACRC's ruling on the tender will arrive in November, based on the average of 55 calendar days it took to resolve the issues in 2025, according to its Activities Report. Until then, ACEX continues to defend "a contracting model that combines economic efficiency, technical quality and innovation" for "adequate conservation of roads and the best use of public resources."
70 million in specific works
Meanwhile, the Ministry submitted this Tuesday to the approval of the Council of Ministers three specific maintenance and rehabilitation actions for the pavement of as many roads, for a joint investment of 70 million euros.
