Spain's Council of Ministers has agreed to terminate the concession contract for the Alicante Bypass PPP project and has announced that in the coming months the contract will be liquidated, due to the concession company, owned by Iridium, being bankrupt.

A 36-year contract to construct, maintain and operate the 33.2km bypass, a tolled motorway, was awarded to the ACS subsidiary in 2004, with operations commencing in 2007. The public company Sociedad Estatal de Infraestructuras del Transporte Terrestre SA (SEITSSA) took over operations on 1 April this year.

The previous government (ousted in June) planned to retender the concession and appoint a new concessionaire before the end of this year. The new government believes that the schedule outlined by its predecessor is "impossible" to keep as the current phase of the retender is too initial to occur before 2019.