Former Minister of Infrastructure, elected governor of São Paulo under the nickname “Tarciso do Asfalto”, (Republicans) arrives on the eve of the electoral period with a history of obstacles in the road sector, an area expected to be one of its main showcases.
The nickname was an attempt by his campaign team, in 2022, to associate the then candidate with the image of an agile executor of road works. However, although he managed to unlock the sector’s main project — the resumption of the northern section of the Rodoanel —, the most relevant tenders created by his team stalled over the three years of his mandate, generating tension between him and his allies in the interior.
Last year, the DER (Department of Highways), responsible for managing road works, had to suspend tenders that, together, would exceed R$5 billion in investments. The body ended the year investing less than half (30.6%) of the budget forecast — just over R$1.1 billion of the R$3.6 billion forecast. The budget for this year is smaller, at R$2.2 billion.
The suspension of tenders resulted in works that were no longer carried out and upset mayors and state deputies, who wanted to see these projects ready to take them to their electoral advertisements. Aware of what he was having, at the end of January Tarcísio changed leadership in the area, with allies.
The governor’s closest aides, however, say they doubt that the adverse climate with his allies will contaminate his electoral performance — since, in addition to the Rodoanel, he must deliver metro lines and forward promises such as the train between the capital and Campinas and the tunnel between Santos and Guarujá, on the coast.
In the report, the government defended the actions taken. He said that he unlocked stopped works and reformulated unfinished projects from previous city halls and governments, reinforcing “the commitment to administrative efficiency and legal security”.
DER resources are mainly allocated to conservation works — such as resurfacing, signage and other repairs — and expansion, such as duplication of single-lane roads or paving dirt roads, on non-privatized highways. Today, around 9,800 km of roads are under the responsibility of the agency, while just over 6,800 km are the responsibility of the concessionaires.
Part of the work takes place on highways granted to the private sector, under the responsibility of the concessionaires. Government members believe that, in these cases, any electoral gains could be overshadowed by criticism of tolls in the free flow system, an issue that led the governor to address last year.
The suspensions of tenders occurred in an environment of growing hostility between the DER and the civil construction sector in the state. Throughout 2024 and 2025, businesspeople interviewed by Sheet complained of intransigence on the part of the organization’s management when issuing notices with demands considered unfeasible.
In this context, the higher value bids led to several questions being filed with the TCE (State Audit Court), which determined a series of bidding suspensions during the period. The government states that “suspensions of notices to comply with recommendations are provided for by law and were promptly complied with” by the body.
One of the symbolic cases occurred in 2023. That year, the Secretary of Environment, Infrastructure and Logistics, Natália Resende, promised the opening of a 5 km road in the Quilombo dos Bombas community, in Iporanga (356 km from SP), accessed only on foot.
The notice was released in November 2024 and suspended the following month, after questions to the TCE. The government only managed to start the work last June, with completion scheduled for the end of this semester.
In 2024, the main contract planned by DER was a public notice for highway conservation with 30 lots, estimated at R$4.3 billion. The event was suspended in October 2025, after questions from the TCE, and relaunched in January for R$4.7 billion.
Another tender suspended in 2025, for the conservation of runways and signage, predicted expenditure of R$915 million, which did not materialize.
Although businesspeople’s complaints to the TCE address technical details, such as how the government measures the progress of works or composes price sheets, scrutiny of the notices reveals other flaws. In one of the cases, in January last year, DER hired a company to improve a section of the Raposo Tavares highway. But the section in question was in a privatization area, with another company responsible for the services. The maintenance contract, worth R$1.8 million, had to be terminated.
A Sheet questioned the government about the episode, but the topic was not addressed in the note sent by the Tarcísio administration regarding highways. In a note, the government states that “DER’s engineering area completed executive projects with an estimated investment of R$3.7 billion in works, covering 363 kilometers in length”, as a way of reversing the situation in the future.
In the note, the government states that “the current management considers that an efficient and structuring infrastructure should be treated as State policy”.
The Tarcísio administration also states that it “starts to operate based on a new system of investment in infrastructure and logistics, in which the expansion and modernization of road infrastructure are carried out in an integrated manner, with robust planning, technical criteria, speed and transparency”.
In the text, the government also says that “it has reformulated, tendered and executed, since 2023, a total of 51 projects” and that “76 works tendered in previous administrations were reviewed by DER-SP, resulting in savings to the public coffers of approximately R$ 218 million”. According to the government, the SP for Toda Obra program brings together “around 1,500 projects, with a total investment of more than R$30 billion”, on 21 thousand km of roads.
