Tunneling work on new rail line to Barcelona Airport completed
First stage of project to connect facility with Sants train station by 2021 concludes at cost of 305 million euros
Preliminary work on the tunnel that will allow trains to reach the T1 terminal at Barcelona Airport from 2021 was completed on Wednesday morning.
The 3,048 meters of the tunnel has been excavated by the largest tunnel boring machine currently at work in Spain, a 100-meter-long monster weighing over 2,000 tonnes.
The tunneling work began in September 2017, reaching the airport in February, with one of the runways temporarily closed this autumn as the machine entered the final stretch.
With the first stage of the project complete, the second stage, to finish the tunnel's interior and build the stations, will now be put out to tender by the state airport operator, Adif.
The project's first phase cost an estimated 305 million euros, with the second stage expected to cost around 95 million euros.
The new line will go from Barcelona's main train station, Sants, to the T1 terminal, stopping at the T2 terminal along the way. The train journey is expected to take 19 minutes.