Alicante Province Faces €3 Billion Infrastructure Investment Deficit Since 2008

La segunda pista del aeropuerto de Alicante-Elche, la conexión ferroviaria con la terminal, el tren de la costa o el tercer carril de la A-70 entre Alicante y Elche. Estas son solo algunas de las infraestructuras estratégicas para la provincia que se agrupan en un largo listado de obras reclamadas desde hace años y que siguen sin ejecutarse.

Demands that have been pending for a long time and have been repeatedly raised by the Alicante business sector. The lack of central government investment in the province is seen as the main obstacle to undertaking these projects. Alicante is the last in funding and has been for many years.

In fact, the province has a €3 billion infrastructure investment deficit, according to the industry association. In 2024 alone, the budget was €184 million for public works, the lowest amount per capita in Spain, as denounced by the general secretary of the Federation of Public Works in Alicante (FOPA), Rosa Vinal, in an interview on À Punt with TodoAlicante journalist José Vicente Pérez.

Vinal claims that this situation has persisted "for years" and emphasizes the execution rate. "Only 30% of the budget is implemented," says the FOPA general secretary, highlighting that "reaching 70% would be a relief."

The complex procedures and bureaucracy hinder the execution of necessary projects for a province burdened by budgets from Moncloa, which remains at the bottom of the general state accounts. FOPA has made clear its efforts to carry out these works and for Alicante to gain more prominence in the national political scene, a province that is the fourth largest contributor of deputies to Congress.

"When the last budgets were approved, we conveyed our complaints to the deputies," says the general secretary, who asks them to do their job "just as we do ours." Vinal recalls that a few years ago they presented the priority infrastructure decalogue in the province, a document prepared together with the Alicante Chamber of Commerce and the Institute of Economic Studies of the Province (Ineca).

The FOPA board has gone further and explained that these infrastructures considered "priority" in the province of Alicante are quantified "by the same amount of this deficit," which exceeds €3 billion. Vinal insists that "if they were executed, they would transform the province."

However, the only infrastructure where procedures have begun from this long list is the Alcoi to Xàtiva railway, "but the rest have no schedule," criticizes Vinal, who focuses on infrastructures such as "the railway access to Alicante-Elche airport, the third lane of the A-70 between Alicante and Elche, or the coastal train. "They have been the same for many years," denounces the board, who assures that "we have no schedule."