Atlantia has announced a plan to invest 7.5 billion euros over the next four years (2020-2023) to improve and strengthen the maintenance of its motorway network in Italy.
The plan, approved by the board of its local subsidiary Autostrade this Thursday, constitutes a gesture before the Government of the country, which currently weighs the possibility of withdrawing highway concessions to the group, currently the first shareholder of the Spanish company Abertis.
The eventual termination of the concessions would take place after the disagreements between the company and the Italian Executive since the collapse of a highway bridge in Genoa in the summer of 2018 and since information about alleged deficiencies in the maintenance of its highways emerged.
In this context, the group controlled by the Benetton family announces this investment plan which, in terms of maintenance, ensures that it represents an increase of 40%.
“Figures that are in line with the negotiations with the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport,” Atlantia said in a statement.
Specifically, of the total investment until 2023, 5,400 million will go directly to the motorway network, an amount that triples the investment executed during the last four years.
Another 2,000 million will be used in maintenance of the roads and their infrastructure, resulting in the aforementioned 40% increase over the previous four-year period.
“This investment will allow the company to complete the modernization of its strategic network, including bridges, viaducts, tunnels, roads and even safety barriers, over the next four years,” says Atlantia.
'Big data' to review bridges
The ACS partner company in Abertis completes this investment plan with 200 million euros for its innovation and process digitalization program, which includes an agreement with IBM.
Under this agreement, it will develop an artificial intelligence platform in order to monitor the state of the nearly 2,000 bridges and viaducts that its highway network in Italy has.
Atlantia says that with the development of this plan, not only will the Italian road network improve, but it will also generate 1,000 different profile jobs, from engineers to toll collectors.
The company is the first motorway operator in Italy, where it manages roads that add a length of 3,255 kilometers in length.