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 had been some optimism that the project could be completed in time for the 2030 men’s soccer World Cup which the two countries are co-hosting along with Portugal.
Now the project to link Punta Paloma in Spain with Morocco’s Punta Malabata could be delayed for a decade after initial studies discovered unforeseen geological challenges.
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Transport Minister, Oscar Puente, said: “The conditions are much more complex than expected.”
He did not expand further on what the problems are.
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’.
It is the shallowest sea-floor pass between the Iberian Peninsula and Africa- roughly 25kms west of the Strait of Gibraltar.
Herrenknecht have a range of test boring machines at their disposal and their work is expected to finish in July.
The tunnel’s proposed design includes a first phase with a single rail tunnel, in which both passenger AVE and freight trains will travel in both directions.
A second phase will see a second tunnel built to allow one tunnel for each direction.
The tunnels would be 38.5kms long of which 28kms would be under the sea at depths of 175m to 475m below sea level.
At its narrowest point, the distance between Morocco and Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar is just 13kms, but geological and topographical factors mean another and longer route would have to be used.