Mest penger til vei

Motorveibrokollapsen i Genova har  ført til økt oppmerksomhet om hvor mye penger som brukes både i Italia og i andre land på vedlikehold av veier. Og hvor mye som brukes på å bytte ut gamle veier med nye.

Data from the OECD, a club of rich countries, confirm this. In 2015, the latest year for which figures are available, Italy spent 76% more on fixing old roads than it did on building new ones—the highest ratio in the OECD. The country has long devoted a large share of its GDP to maintaining its decaying avenues, motorways, tunnels and bridges. The 0.55% that it managed in 2015 was the fourth-biggest portion in the OECD, even as its government battled to reduce public spending and tame the budget deficit. Unfortunately, that austerity applied the brakes to investment in new roads. In 2006, Italy devoted 0.92% of GDP to such projects, putting it in the OECD’s top third. By 2015 the share had fallen to 0.31%, the fifth-lowest in the group.

Som en ser av listen er Norge blant landene i OECD som bruker mest penger på vei, både på vedlikehold av eksisterende veier. Og på investeringer i nye veier.