Petros Souretis, Executive Director of the Infrastructure Group, spoke about the future of the construction sector and GEK TERNA’s place in it at TEE’s Green Deal conference.
Mr Souretis said that, after a prolonged period of crisis, construction groups had become undisputed leaders in investment. In this context, he added, GEK TERNA had evolved into a European infrastructure group with stable, measurable performance and an extensive portfolio of long-term concessions. This portfolio secures recurring revenue streams and operating profitability (EBITDA), which reached €631.4 million in 2025.
At the same time, strong liquidity of around €2.2 billion enables the Group to implement its strategy without disruption.
Asked “whether there is some kind of tension in the sector”, he said that “there may be something” in relations between contractors, but GEK TERNA chooses to remain focused on implementing its strategy.
Traffic congestion in Attica
On traffic congestion in Attica, which is causing economic and social chaos, Mr Souretis said pointedly that “time is running out”, making immediate measures essential.
Specifically, these measures include:
• The extension of Kymi Avenue (3.8 km): This will significantly ease congestion during peak hours and allow a direct connection between Attiki Odos and the national road, bypassing Metamorfosi. The project is now awaiting a solution to the funding issue, after a provisional contractor was selected through the tender process several years ago.
• The Ilioupoli Urban Tunnel: A model proposal has already been submitted for the project. It is crucial to improving access to Ellinikon and the capital’s southern areas, given the pressure from the Ellinikon project, which is expected to attract 1 million visitors a year, while the annual rate of increase in the number of cars travelling to the southern suburbs ranges between 5% and 7%.
• Work at the Metamorfosi Junction: The project being carried out by GEK TERNA will significantly reduce delays, as queues of up to 6 kilometres currently form there.
Climate resilience
At the same time, Mr Souretis stressed, the future of construction requires rapid adaptation to climate change and the demands of the digital transition. Infrastructure maintenance must therefore become a top priority to prevent situations such as that on the Egnatia Odos, where a lack of maintenance caused damage to escalate exponentially and pushed the road corridor to the brink of disrepair.
“Today, the concessionaire is being called on to address years of accumulated wear and damage along the route,” Mr Souretis said.
To achieve this, the construction sector must modernise digitally by fully adopting advanced technologies such as:
• BIM (Building Information Modelling): It saves 10–20% of a project’s cost over its entire life cycle.
• The Digital Twin: A live digital replica of the infrastructure, with monitoring and control carried out in real time.
“How we process information about the built environment determines how intelligent, cost-effective, safe and resilient our infrastructure will be,” Mr Souretis concluded.