Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
AN underwater tunnel between Spain and Morocco is reported to be one step nearer to fruition after a agency was chosen to conduct a feasibility examine.
German underground boring specialists Herrenknecht, who specialize in tunneling utilizing the biggest drilling machines on this planet, have been awarded the €300,000 contract by way of their Spanish subsidiary, in keeping with stories in Morocco.
Herrenknecht boasts a observe document of prestigious tunnelling tasks, together with Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland, which is the world’s longest and deepest railway tunnel at 57 km lengthy.
The German specialists additionally constructed the brand new Thames Tideway Tunnel, also called London’s ‘tremendous sewer’, and Qatar’s metro system in Doha constructed forward of the 2022 World Cup.
READ MORE: Spain to Morocco practice newest: Companies line as much as put money into the so-called ‘Gibraltar Tunnel’ as mission edges nearer
They are going to be tasked with investigating whether or not the proposed €7 billion tunnel, which might run 300 metres deep underground between Tarifa and Tangier, can be a possible engineering feat.
The plans, which might surpass the size of each the Channel Tunnel and Japan’s Seikan Tunnel, have already seen mixed investments of €104 million from Spain and Morocco since preliminary research started.
An extra €2 million in EU restoration funds has been allotted to replace technical research and digitise plans for the mega-project, which might take over 20 years.
READ MORE: Spain-Morocco rail tunnel newest: Specialists will examine seismic exercise within the Gibraltar strait to find out mission’s viability – that is the proposed route
Formidable estimates predict that 13 million passengers might cross between Morocco and Spain every year on the practice, which might contain a double-rail observe and a further service line stretching 38.5 kilometres .
The Spanish government-owned firm Secegsa has lately contracted 4 seismographs, for a cool €480,000, to guage seismic dangers in collaboration with the US Geological Survey.
The mission envisions two railway tunnels that will join Spain’s rail community to Morocco’s, although important infrastructure upgrades can be wanted on the Spanish facet.
Secegsa’s government president Jose Luis Goberna Caride has already stated that whereas preliminary research might value as much as €1 billion, this funding is essential for correct value and timeline projections for the ultimate construct.
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The mission, first conceived in 1979 following a gathering between Spain’s King Juan Carlos I and Morocco’s Hassan II, has seen intervals of each progress and stagnation, usually reflecting the state of Spanish-Moroccan relations.
If accomplished, the tunnel would create the primary fastened hyperlink between Europe and Africa, probably reworking commerce routes between the 2 continents and marking probably the most important engineering achievements in trendy historical past.
