Del atraso a la convergencia. La red de carreteras en España, 1900-2010

La necesidad de dar respuesta al freno que suponía la deficitaria red de transporte terrestre para el crecimiento de la economía se convirtió en un objetivo básico de la política inversora del Estado durante el siglo XX. Un primer esfuerzo constructor se produjo en el primer tercio del siglo, dando inicio a la etapa contemporánea del transporte por carretera en España. Tras el parón de la postguerra civil, un nuevo impulso tuvo lugar a partir de 1960 y hasta la crisis de mediados de los setenta, multiplicándose las inversiones destinadas a este fin. Durante la transición asistimos a una brusca caída de las inversiones que llevó aparejado un estancamiento de la longitud de la red y a la transferencia de una parte de las carreteras a las nacientes Comunidades Autónomas. El país realizó, desde mediados de los ochenta y ayudado por los fondos europeos, un esfuerzo considerable, pasando de país atrasado a converger con Europa en equipamiento de grandes infraestructuras de transporte.The need to address the constraint on the growth of the Spanish economy caused by the deficient road transport network became a primary objective of the State’s investment policy during the whole of the 20th century. An initial effort to build the network was made in the first thirty years of the century, marking the start of the contemporary era of road transport in Spain. This development was interrupted by the civil war, then, a new boost in road construction took place between 1960 until the crisis of the mid 1970s, a period during which investments in road infrastructure were multiplied. During the Transition period there was a sharp fall in investments, no efforts were made to extend the length of the network and the competences for part of the roads were transferred to the newly-formed Autonomous Regions. From the mid-1980s and with the help of European funds, Spain made a considerable effort to modernise its network. It is no longer underdeveloped and has converged with the rest of Europe in terms of its largescale transport infrastructure facilities