Of course, you may not be aware of it, but a Spanish company by the name of CINTRA – not CENTRA, though that would be nice ..(together with the Australian company Macquarie) has landed a 99-year lease of the famous Chicago Skyway and in March 2006, they also got their hands on the famous Indiana Tollway for 3.85 million dollars.

In just four years, the Skyway (their first acquisition in Indiana) has already recovered 44% of their original investment. And now, their newest investment expects a steady stream of revenue that will top 2005’s return of $96 million by 12.5% (that is an expected revenue of $109 million). Of course, tollways are in fact a gold mine for anyone: you gain revenues constantly (on a daily basis) with a minimal cost of maintenance which normally goes toward road repairs, new technology for toll booths, and emergency equipment such as telephones. And as the number of vehicles on the road increases, the “sales/revenueâ€? forecasts for these companies is simply “off the charts.â€?

Spain’s CINTRA are simply experts at how to maintain and profit from owning or leasing tollways. They have literally created and manage thousands of kilometers of motorway extensions throughout the country. The major difference between the US and Spain: most tollways in the US are privately owned or leased – and now Spain has it’s own piece of land in the United States (once again!).

Toll roads have different names: like pikes, turnpikes, toll bridges and toll tunnels. There are at present two ways of collecting tolls: using a barrier toll plaza and entry/exit tolls. A main toll plaza tends to create traffic jams, so most toll road managers tend to use the entry/exit toll system, charging drivers for distance travelled, by issuing tickets upon entry and paying on exit.

In Spain, motorways or autopistas are technically owned by the government, but most of them are managed by privately owned companies through state concessions. Since most of them are renewed upon expiration, these companies basically have a monopoly on the market.

Now the question remains: are we going to continue paying for toll roads in the future? Are we now going to have to pay more to enter into big cities like Madrid, Pamplona, Zaragoza, Seville, Cadiz, Malaga, Barcelona, La Coruña, Valencia, etc?

There is an ongoing debate about toll roads. How much do these companies really spend on road maintenance? Tollways, by definition in each concession, are only allowed to charge “tolls� once they are finished and then are obliged to lower them once construction is finished. In reality, this never occurs and governments around the world continue to raise taxes on roads, etc. So where does all the money go? Good question.

One possible solution could be the privately owned “autoviasâ€? like the one between Logroño-Pamplona. The company built the autovia, and the Autonomous community pays them an annual per-vehicle tax based on usage of the toll road. Since payment doesn’t begin until road construction is finished, roads tend to be built faster…

Cintra now has its hands on other contracts in the new Trans-Texas corridor, and are a permanent partner with the Texas state government. Who would of thought that Spain could re-launch their empire inside the USA? And above all in Indiana! Looks like some of that Hoosier blood rubbed off on the Spanish National Basketball Team in the finals of the World Basketball Championship!