EU Invests €500M in Rail, Road, Port, Aviation Infrastructure
October 21, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
On Oct. 21, the European Commission (EC) announced the first group of projects to benefit from €500 million worth of investment in key transportation infrastructure projects across the European Union (EU).
The grants will be allocated under the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) program, which helps fund projects to build missing transport links or remove bottlenecks that will enable people and goods to circulate quickly and easily between EU member states.
The €500 million package constitutes a vital part of the EC's response to the economic crisis. The new funding will go towards projects in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and the U.K.
A second group of projects benefiting from TEN-T funding will be announced later this year.
Traffic between member states is expected to double by 2020. To accommodate this growth, the EC's said that major investments are needed until 2020 to complete and modernize the EU's transportation network in a sustainable way.
TEN-T grants play a key role in making infrastructure work possible, either by funding studies to help overcome early-stage project difficulties or by financing part of the actual work.
The €500 million funding was originally intended to be spread out over several years, but was brought forward earlier this year because of the EC's coordinated response to the economic crisis. As transport plays such a central role in the economy, improving the infrastructure can act as a catalyst for increased economic activity.
EC vice president Antonio Tajani, in charge of transport, said, "It is my conviction that the EU's capacity to grow depends on the quality of its transport infrastructure and the TEN-T program plays an essential role in ensuring its progress. Unlocking this funding shows the Commission is serious about tackling the economic crisis, as it is targeted to encourage further economic growth. This funding released under the TEN-T program plays a crucial role in keeping Europe moving forward."
The new funding was announced at the first day of the TEN-T Days conference in Naples. As part of the conference, participants will take stock of the implementation of the 30 so-called priority projects and provide a first outline of common priorities until 2020.
Following is the list of projects to receive TEN-T funding that was announced on Oct. 21, with the amount of EU contribution shown in parentheses:
Austria
- Four-track development of the western line Vienna-Linz - Melk railway station (€3,400,000)
Belgium
- Rebuilding of Noorderlaanbridge (€1,342,000)
France
- New railway high-speed line "LGV Est" second phase - section Baudrecourt-Vendenheim (€75,996,000)
Germany
- BAB A3, Frankfurt-Nürnberg, renewal of the main bridge at Randersacker (€2,395,000)
- Tri-modal enlargement of the water involvement of Cologne port (€3,330,000)
Hungary
- Construction of a pier for combined Schengen and non-Schengen operations and seamless passenger transfer at Budapest Airport (€7,560,000)
Italy
- Rome Ring Road motorway - northwestern section - upgrade to three lanes in both directions from km 11+250 to km 12+650 - completion works (€2,981,000)
- Implementation of nautical accessibility in the port of Venice-Marghera - operational and remedial dredging in two stretches of the west and south ship canals (€3,912,000)
- Hub of Torino, section Susa-Stura, removal of bottleneck (€52,740,000)
- Italy integration of communication and surveillance, IP1 (€4,048,000)
The Netherlands
- Elimination of the bottleneck of the north-south artery A2 (E25) - building the urban highway tunnel in Maastricht (€15,000,000)
Portugal
- Faro Airport development plan - phase 1 (€6,016,000)
Spain
- Express Route SE-40 (Seville) - Section Coria del Rio-Dos Hermanas, north and south tunnels (€23,969,000)
Sweden
- Port infrastructure facilities in the Malmö Northern Harbor (€5,922,000)
- E6.21 Partihall Connection (€16,296,000)
United Kingdom
- Thames Estuary dredge and reclamation works to support the integrated multi-modal London Gateway port and logistics development (€14,174,000)
- A14 Corridor traffic management scheme (€11,670,000)
- Felixstowe-Nuneaton route work (€9,234,000)
For more information, see the EC web page for TEN-T Days 2009: The Future of Trans-European Transport Networks.
Source: European Commission (EC).