Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
PLANS for a rail tunnel linking Spain and Morocco have hit the buffers due to ‘complex conditions’ and it may not be ready until 2040.
There was some optimism about the project being completed by the time of the men’s World Cup soccer tournament in 2030, which Portugal and the two countries will be co-hosting.
The project to connect Punta Paloma, Spain, with Punta Malabata in Morocco could now be delayed by a decade following initial studies that revealed unexpected geological challenges.
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Oscar Puente said that the conditions are more complex than expected.
He didn’t elaborate on the problem.
A company called Herrenknecht Iberia was given a contract by the Spanish government in October as to whether it would feasible to drill through the ‘Camarinal Threshold’.
This is the shallowest passage on the sea floor between the Iberian Peninsula (Iberia) and Africa, approximately 25km west of Strait of Gibraltar.
Herrenknecht has a variety of test boring machine at their disposal. Their work should be completed in July.
The tunnel design proposed includes a first stage with a single-rail tunnel where both freight and passenger trains AVE will travel both ways.
The second phase involves the construction of a tunnel in each direction.
The tunnels are 38.5km long. Of that, 28km will be underwater at a depth of 175m – 475m.
Distance between Morocco, Spain and the Strait of Gibraltar at its narrowest is 13kms. But topographical and geological factors dictate that another, longer route will be required.
