For the second consecutive year, the technical research on highways announced by the National Transportation Confederation indicated that the 19 best Brazilian highways are granted to private administration. Disclosed on November 7, the ranking with 109 road links indicated a superior evaluation of the granted highways in relation to those that are administered by the public power: 74.4% of the awarded mesh surveyed had an optimum or good evaluation, while the highways under public administration had only 29.6% positive evaluation.
The CNT survey evaluated a total of 105,814 kilometers of highways, of which 19,419 kilometers are granted. “Once again, the study confirms that we are on the right track for the consolidation of the highway concession process. However, there is still a lot to be done to expand and improve the country’s limited paved network, which remains the smallest in relation to the country, “says César Borges, chief executive of the Brazilian Association of Highway Concessionaires – ABCR.
Investments
The study also indicated a drastic fall in the reduction of federal public investments as of 2011, which led to a worsening of the situation of the highways. In 2011, federal public investment in road infrastructure was R $ 11.21 billion; in 2016, the volume invested practically retreated to the level of 2008, dropping to R $ 8.61 billion. This year, up to June, only R $ 3.01 billion were invested.
As for the investments of R $ 6.75 billion made in 2016 on the granted highways, the decrease of 3.2% in relation to 2014 is a result of difficulties to obtain environmental licenses and highway financing of the 3rd stage of the concessions, which led to a standstill in the planned investments.
“The concessionaires of highways participating in this stage are prepared to immediately invest about R $ 20 billion if such difficulties are solved,” says César Borges. “Since 1995, the federal, state and municipal highways concession sector has invested R $ 109 billion in improvements and maintenance of 61 highways. Annually, it generates about 55 thousand jobs, “he adds.

Photo: Reproduction
Source: Tourism Journal