But with the collapse of the Greek economy, revenues from tolls on national highways have fallen by around 15% since 2009, explains Demetrios Konstantakopoulos, project manager at the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, set up last year by the government to manage privatization of state assets.

With revenues below the levels required by the bank-loan mandates behind the highway concessions, funding has effectively dried up, says Yannis Kourniotis, a principal in Bernitsas Law Offices, Athens, which is advising some of the affected firms. Allowing the deals to flounder would create "serious problems" for the already struggling local contractors, he adds.

Major Greek contractors have interests in all five concessions and are in sole charge of the contract covering the 200-kilometer Corinth-Tripoli-Kalamata Motorway, valued at more than $1.3 billion. Athens-based Aktor Concessions S.A. controls more than 70% of the contract.

Foreign contractors on the projects include France's Vinci S.A., Paris, and Hochtief A.G, Essen, Germany, with interests in two. Madrid, Spain-based Cintra S.A. and Grupo ACS are committed to two others.

Among the midsize EU states, Spain is a major casualty of the crisis, now suffering from the collapse of a building bubble inflated by low eurozone interest rates. Construction work in Spain has shrunk by over 15% in the past two years and will fall another 7% this year, according to forecasts by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A., Madrid.

Civil-engineering output tumbled 35% last year alone as a direct result of government austerity measures, add analysts at the economics consultant Crédito y Caución S.A., Madrid. Spanish construction is not alone in falling victim to government attempts to reduce state debts, which have ballooned since the start of the banking crisis in 2007.

Last summer's worsening of the ">sovereign debt crisis has led to intensification of efforts across the region to cut budgets, depressing the available volume of non-residential and infrastructure construction, notes ">Euroconstruct, the club of independent forecasters from 19 European countries.

Economic weakness across Europe is making itself felt in construction with the rise of non-payments on contracts, notes COFACE, the Paris-based company that handles export credit guarantees for the French state. COFACE reports a large number of non-payment incidents in the worst-hit countries, including Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands and Greece.