The Minister of Public Works, José Luis Ábalos, has assured that "we conceive the infrastructures as an instrument to give a public service, at the service of society, and not to be an end in themselves", besides being "preparing ourselves for the challenges of the future. "
Ábalos has made these statements at the opening ceremony of the "V Edition of the Global Engineering and Public Works Forum", organized by the Caminos Foundation and the College of Civil Engineers, in collaboration with the Menéndez Pelayo International University, in Santander.
The head of the Department has once again reached out to the rest of the political, economic and social actors for the achievement of a State Pact in terms of infrastructure and mobility. An agreement that, according to Ábalos, "guarantees the fulfillment of the railway and road plans, the management of the conservation of the infrastructures and the priorities and criteria of investment".
An important challenge, the minister insisted, revolves around the change of concept of investment in infrastructures for investment in mobility, characterized by its rationalization and reorientation of resources where they are most needed. In addition, he assured that "we are working on the strategy of safe, sustainable and connected mobility".
Efficiency and conservation
Ábalos has reviewed the policies carried out since his arrival at the Ministry, with a clear commitment to mobility as a right, the guarantee of social access to housing, the promotion of strategies to improve transport safety and the work for modernization and adaptation to technological and environmental change linked to the planning and efficiency of transport policy.
The technological challenge has also been present in the minister's words with concepts such as new mobility, autonomous vehicle, intelligent transport systems or the use of Big Data to define concepts of preventive conservation.
In this sense, Ábalos wanted to point out that "infrastructures are safe, but we must be critical for their improvement", which is why the Ministry is working to undertake actions that address road conservation. He recalled that "a comprehensive report has been presented in the Council of Ministers with more than 60 initiatives related to security, maintenance and the impact of climate change on our infrastructure."