Antonio Vivaldi's Spring was heard in a tunnel in Madrid on May 9, 2007. It was the inauguration of the last tunnel that completed the burial of a gigantic structure for the capital of Spain: the M-30. An almost 33 kilometer long ring road that surrounds thousands of buildings in a diamond shape and on which more than 300,000 vehicles now travel every day. According to the municipality, it is the busiest street in Spain. On this morning in May 2007, a project that left the city administration with a debt of over 4,000 million euros also ended.
Even the mayor at the time, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón of the PP, cried – with joy, of course – because he saw in his eyes the end of one of his great political bets. “Gallardón rode his motorcycle to the works and then reminded each responsible city councilor of the failures, the imperfections and what he had discovered when he was there alone,” said the mayor's first deputy and right-hand man, Manuel Cobo , in an opinion report published by this newspaper in September 2007.
“He's one of those people who doesn't care about one thing or another.” Gallardón bet the future and management of the M-30 on privatization and in 2005 20% fell into private hands. Now, after 19 years, the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, is changing this decision and will remunicipalize the M-30 -30, which will be 100% open to the public from January 1, 2026.
According to operational sources, the new management will take over following a study carried out by the city council's finance department. This report claims that the city's public coffers pay more than 50 million euros annually to the company that owns this 20% of the public company: Emesa. In 2005, this company was awarded the public contract to maintain the highway for 35 years. Composed of the ACS Group and Ferrovial, Emesa employs almost 300 workers who will be replaced after remunicipalization in 2026 and all their working conditions will be maintained.
José María Álvarez del Manzano, Ana Botella, José Luis Martínez Almeida and Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón celebrate the 40th anniversary of Ifema. Manuel Casamayon
The Madrid City Council will now buy this 20% from Emesa, based on a clause in the contract signed in 2005, which, however, provided for a review in 2024 with this possibility. However, it is not yet known how high the amount will be. A Works spokeswoman says it will not be higher than the net value of Emesa shares at the end of this year. So far, all that is known is how much annual maintenance of the M-30 costs the residents of Madrid, which amounts to more than 160 million euros. That's around 450,000 euros per day.
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In addition, there are the city council's payments to Emesa, which, according to the operating department's calculations, amount to a further around 50 million euros per year. This is what the Madrid City Council will actually save through remunicipalization. Or to put it another way: the city council could have saved 950 million euros in 19 years if it had not privatized this 20%.
The Accounts Chamber questioned the model
“How useful it is to tackle this change in the model now,” say sources from the city council’s work area, “has become clear with the progress in the execution of the contract.” The reality is that this step was already taken two years ago in a municipal Plenary session and was undertaken at the request of the PSOE, which urged the Almeida government to begin “as soon as possible” the administrative procedures necessary to establish a direct management of the public nature conservation and conservation service. Use of the M-30. All groups voted for it.
The Chamber of Accounts questioned this Gallardón model in a report on the management of the M-30 works. In a tough analysis published in January 2017, the organization found a lack of technical, legal and economic feasibility studies, excessive interest charges by the private manager and “significant differences” between the actual costs and those billed to the city council. .
In addition, the report stated that the city council financed the cost of the electricity supply, even though the successful bidder had contractually agreed to do so. In addition, in November 2016, the City Council itself, then governed by Manuela Carmena (now Madrid), verified that the Emesa company had not complied with several requirements of the signed contract, including, among others, the maintenance of the tunnels, etc. of operators dealing with Deal with incidents and emergencies or deficiencies in the fire protection system.
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