The Government must rescue the Rotas do Algarve Litoral (RAL) concession and proceed with works on the EN125, in Sotavento, with its own resources. This is the only solution accepted by the Algarve's mayors, after the final decision by the Court of Auditors (TC) to the agreement between the State and the concessionaire, which deprived the private entity of the responsibility for carrying out the works on the EN125 between Olhão and Vila Real de St. Anthony (VRSA).
The renegotiation of this Public-Private Partnership (PPP) had already been failed about a year ago, in a first decision of the TC, which Infraestruturas de Portugal appealed. The court has now confirmed the original sentence, in what is, according to Jorge Botelho, president of AMAL – Comunidade Intermunicipal do Algarve, “a final decision”.
"The next step, in our opinion, is to rescue the concession in the 50 kilometers that still have to be requalified, between Olhão and VRSA, so that Infraestruturas de Portugal can complete the works."
“I have already asked for a meeting with the minister, where I am going to convey our position to him. But, for now, I still haven't had any feedback, only at the meeting will we know what the Government's intention is», revealed the also president of the Chamber of Tavira, one of the affected councils.
In practice, the TC's decision leads to the return of everything to its original form, that is, to the concession that encompassed not only the works on the EN125 itself, but also a series of other interventions, including variants on this national road. In this way, it will have to be the consortium that won the concession to move forward with the remaining works, something that the private partner has already warned that it has no intention of doing.
The alternative is to rescue the concession, the path that "gathers the consensus" of the mayors of the Algarve, namely the mayors of VRSA, Castro Marim, Tavira and Olhão, where the background works have not yet been carried out. In between Faro and Vila do Bispo, it was RAL that carried out the works.
The redemption of the concession It's been on the table for a long time. When the TC issued the first decision, which made it impossible to renegotiate the contract between the State and the EN125 concessionaire, RAL publicly announced that it would suspend "all operation and maintenance activities carried out by that sub-concessionaire provided for in the sub-concession contract".
At that time, IP assumed track management powers, namely surveillance and security maintenance. But it was already accepted that the rescue would be the option to follow.
It is certain that this will always be a political decision, which will fall to the Government. But it would not be an unprecedented case. In 2013, the Government terminated the contract with the entity responsible for the Túnel do Marão project, and the intervention was handed over to IP, which has already completed it.
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