The release of the 374 km between Tarragona and Alicante will mean that, starting in January, circulating on the Road Network of the State of the Valencian Community will be 93% cheaper and will mean an annual saving of 300 million euros for users.
It also represents a radical change for the users of the roads that run through the Valencian Community since, to date, three out of every 10 km of the high capacity roads in the territory were paid directly by the users.
Likewise, it will result in the almost total elimination of tolls from a Community that to date was the third in number of kilometers of paid roads.
AP-7 release
On December 31, the concession term of the Tarragona-Valencia and Valencia-Alicante sections of the AP-7 ends, totaling 374 kilometers in length after almost 50 years of tolls by users.
These sections revert to the General State Administration on January 1, and from that day on they become toll-free, that is, free for users. In addition, from that moment its management and conservation is the responsibility of the Ministry of Development via budget.
The Government's commitment is that concessions whose term ends in this term will not be extended or re-tendered. Infrastructure management will correspond directly to the General State Administration and not to private concessionaires.
On November 12, 2019, 4 service contracts were tendered to carry out the conservation and operation of this highway, one for each province through which the AP-7 (Tarragona, Castellón, Valencia and Alicante) runs with a joint budget of 53.7 million euros (€ 26.9 million per year). During this transitory situation, until the contract is awarded, the Ministry of Development has planned the execution of the conservation and exploitation operations, dismantling of the toll facilities and demolition of the toll roads of the highway, which will be carried out progressively over the next few months.
Additionally, the conservation and exploitation of the 9 existing service areas between Tarragona and Alicante on the AP-7 has also been tendered through a service concession contract divided into 9 lots.