Óscar Puente has already found a successor to head the Directorate-General for Roads (DGC). The Minister for Transport and Sustainable Mobility has chosen the Head of the State Roads Division in the Valencian Community, Guillermo Llopis, to replace Juan Pedro Fernández Palomino, who tendered his resignation at the start of the month, according to sources familiar with the matter speaking to ‘elEconomista.es’.
The new Director-General of Roads, whose formal appointment is imminent, takes up the post at a turbulent time in relations with companies in the sector. He faces two issues requiring urgent resolution: the reversion of the AP-68 toll motorway and the 11 first-generation dual carriageways, on the one hand, and the deadlock in the tendering process for maintenance services for the state road network due to the companies’ rebellion against the new tender specifications, on the other.
The crisis caused by the ‘Cerdán case’ – with several road contracts at the centre of the investigations – the tensions that have arisen in recent months with the companies, and the temporary uncertainty surrounding the post due to the general election scheduled for 2027 have made it difficult to replace Fernández Palomino at the helm of the DGC, a role he took on in October 2022.
SOURCE: elEconomista.es