OHL has become Spain’s pioneer construction company to manage public technology procurement and innovation (PTPI) in its sector. Public innovating purchasing is defined as a procurement device launched by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness to promote innovation and technology and provide a response to new public needs. 

Amongst its forms, this tool includes PTPI, consisting of the public acquisition of an asset or service that does not exist at the purchase date and needs to be developed according to new or improved technology. Furthermore, in Spain, based on certain parameters, some PTPI projects may be financed by Feder funds up to 80% of the awarded amount, conditioned to demonstration, for the first time, of real technological efficiency.  

Under this form, the OHL Group has executed the first PTPI project in Spain directly co-financed with European funds for infrastructure construction. The project involves the rehabilitation of a section of the road surface along the Francisco Montenegro Avenue, in the Port of Huelva.  

The section, divided into three parts two kilometers long, incorporates three experimental solutions for raising the surface: two bituminous mixtures and reinforced ultra-thin concrete. The novelty of this project involves using various experimental technologies on the road surface, able to withstand heavy traffic whilst also reducing any environmental impact by reducing noise levels. 

In 2011, OHL had already been the first to execute an infrastructure construction in Spain under the PTPI formula, using Cubipods when executing the shelter dyke in the San Andrés platform, Port of Málaga. The Cubipod is 100% Spanish technology, developed and designed by Universidad Politécnica de Valencia and the OHL Group. In this project, the Group actually applied it for the first time was rewarded with the National Innovation Prize by the Port Authority of Málaga.