Comparing our infrastructure with that of other countries is inevitable. Looking at countries such as Germany or Switzerland, it is easy to feel a little envious. There, projects are planned with millimetric precision, deadlines are met—what a revolutionary concept!—and budgets do not overflow. German highways, for example, are famous for efficiency, and in Switzerland, even tunnels beneath mountains seem to be finished on time.
In Spain, by contrast, planning is more… flexible. Here, deadlines are a kind of guideline rather than a strict rule, and initial budgets are more of a starting point. This can be frustrating, but it also gives our infrastructure that touch of “improvisation” which, although less than ideal, is unmistakably ours.
And if there is something we must admit, it is that we are never bored in Spain. Construction projects generate endless debates in bars, on the radio, and on television. Who has not heard a friend complain about the eternal roadworks on the way to their village? It is part of our culture. While people in other countries discuss the weather, in Spain we discuss construction work.