300 pages of documentation arrive at the Madrid Assembly on March 1 to argue what seems like a scandal: that the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso has just paid 73,388,672.44 euros to the construction company of the MP-203, a motorway toll promoted in the time of Esperanza Aguirre, through which not a single car has ever circulated, and which has not even been finished.

The compensation to Ferrovial, determined by the courts, compensates for the executed part of the work, as happened in December with the 162 million paid to OHLA for the train from Móstoles to Navalcarnero, also from the Aguirre era, and which has not been never used.

And it opens a new scenario: the Community wants to put out to tender this year the works to complete the layout, which will require resolving the technical problems that ruined the project.

More information

Photos: MP-203, the ghost highway

“The Community of Madrid, through the approval of the Governing Council, has paid Ferrovial almost 73.4 million euros [68,062,634.52 euros correspond to the principal and 5,326,037.92 euros to the legal interest on the money for delay in payment] for the works already carried out”, affirms a government spokesman.

“We are going to tender the work this year to finish it.”

Construction of the MP-203 began in 2005, when Aguirre governed Madrid.

It was going to have 12.5 kilometers and its purpose was to connect the M-203 and the A-2 (at the Torrejón de Ardoz terminus) with the M-208 and the R-3, already at the height of Mejorada del Campo, to decongest the entrance to Madrid from Alcalá de Henares.

Madrid, Aguirre announced, was going to get it for free: the construction company would pay for everything and then exploit the highway under a toll system for three decades.

More than 2.7 million vehicles per year were expected to circulate through it.

Abandoned toll station on the MP-203.LUIS SEVILLANO

However, it was a high risk bet.

The works began without having resolved two key unknowns.

On one side, how to overcome the Madrid-Zaragoza AVE lines, which was later achieved by changing the route.

And the other, how to connect with the R-3, which was opposed by the concessionaire of that road, alleging that it would harm the volume of traffic on its road, and therefore its business (which it already communicated in 2001).

The then Ministry of Public Works did not give its authorization to the linking, based on these reasons, and Ferrovial withdrew from the work in 2007. There were 300 meters of the route left to be done, in addition to covering the pavement already installed.

After beginning the work without ensuring its viability, the Community ran into an insurmountable wall.

"The link with the R-3 has never been resolved because the authorization of the Ministry of Public Works has not been granted since it depended on the signing of an agreement between the Ministry and the Community that has not been signed," it reads in the case file, to which EL PAÍS accessed, and in which the successful bidder argues its position as harmed for more than a decade.

“The truth is that the Community, as of April 2012, has not carried out any action aimed at signing the agreement, inactivity that remains, with which, the provision of the necessary land to execute the link with the R-3 is still not being produced more than eight and a half years after the signing of the concession contract”.

Thus, both parties defend their interests in court.

And when the Community claims to find defects in the execution of the work (in drains or pavements) that would reduce compensation to the concessionaire, it protests: “The deterioration of the works due to the time that has elapsed since their stoppage is attributable solely and exclusively to the Community of Madrid for guilty breach of contract.

Pending Budgets

The MP-203 is used today by runners and cyclists for training.

There is no trace of the cars and trucks for which the concessionaire was going to charge, which came to an agreement with the Community to operate the highway for 60 years in order to compensate for the delays.

The legal obligation to compensate her for the executed part of the work, and the project to resume it, have been delayed by the constant earthquake that Madrid's politics has become for five years.

Former president Cristina Cifuentes, willing to finish the infrastructure, was devoured by the

.

And Ángel Garrido, who as Minister of Transport was prepared to execute the compensation, was swept away by the early election decided a year ago by Díaz Ayuso.

In between, the problem for payment has always been the same: in 2020 and 2021, Madrid did not have Budgets because the Executive chaired by the conservative leader did not even send a public accounts project to the regional Assembly.

In 2022, already with updated Budgets thanks to the pact between PP and Vox, the solution has arrived: a millionaire payment for a public infrastructure that no one can use.

Subscribe here

Exclusive content for subscribers

read without limits

subscribe

I'm already a subscriber