Ferrovial opens its first toll road in Portugal

Scut Algarve, which is 130 km long, is under concession until 2030

It will begin construction of its second road, Scut Norte Litoral, this year

Madrid, 11 April 2003
Ferrovial, through subsidiary Cintra, has opened its first Portuguese toll roadScut Algarveto traffic.

The 130 km road (37.8 km newly-built) runs from Vila Real de Santo Antonio to Lagos and establishes a new east-west axis, 15-20 km inland, along the coast of Southern Portugal, improves communications for the coastal towns and reroutes long-distance traffic.

The new road will service the towns along its route, whose population grows from its regular 80,000 to over 350,000 in the summer months. Traffic is estimated to reach 14,500 vehicles per day.

Scut Algarve is a shadow toll road managed by a consortium owned 71% by Cintra, Ferrovials toll road subsidiary. The project cost 275 million euros and is under concession for 30 years.

Over 1,100 people were employed in building the road, 9.8 km of which were opened to traffic on 31 January 2003. The road has a surface area of over 4 million square meters and has 32 underpasses, 24 overpasses and 12 viaducts.

Portugal, a strategic market
Cintra is also leading another toll road project in Portugal: Scut Norte Litoral, located in the north of the country. Construction will commence this year; investment will total 370 million euros and the concession is also for 30 years.

Portugal is a strategic market for Ferrovial; it has been very active there for over a decade through construction projects, infrastructure concessions, real estate development and services.

In the toll road segment, Ferrovial recently bid for Scut Azores and maintains its interest in bidding for other toll road projects that are put out to tender in Portugal in the future.

Ferrovial is one of the worlds leading private sector developers of infrastructure, with a committed investment of 1,700 million euros.

Ferrovial manages 16 toll roads in Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Canada and Chile, 12 airports in the UK, Australia, Mexico and Chile, which handle 40 million passengers per year, and 175,000 parking spaces in Spain.