The government of the Community of Madrid, chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, cannot confirm that the three-station section of Metro line 7B that has been closed for almost two years will be reopened, after having altered the subsoil of the municipality of San Fernando. de Henares, causing the demolition of 73 homes. This is advanced by the Minister of Housing, Transport and Infrastructure, Jorge Rodrigo, who also specifies that the section of infrastructure that is open right now between the Estadio Metropolitano and San Fernando stations will be closed soon, foreseeably in the summer and for up to seven months. , so that improvement works can be undertaken. The two decisions photograph the dramatic trajectory of a suburban line that Esperanza Aguirre’s government inaugurated in 2007 in haste, just before the regional elections, and that has forever marked the lives of almost 200 residents of the municipality of San Fernando ( 40,000 inhabitants) who have lost their homes as a result of the arrival of the suburban to their town. From now on, its future use is surrounded by unknowns.
“After the summer we are going to condition the roads,” Rodrigo explained during a meeting with journalists. “We are going to make an investment of 28.2 million euros in the specific section, with works that have a completion period of seven months,” he continues. “Soon we will have to invest in the section that is currently open, from the Metropolitano to San Fernando, to improve it,” he details, warning that this will imply its closure. “When these actions are closed, in the medium or long term, we have to assess whether all the technical safety standards are met to [re]open [el tramo de tres estaciones actualmente cerrado de] Metro line 7B,” he admits. And he finishes: “There is no date. I am not in a position to guarantee that it will work again. When the time comes we will decide if it works again or not. “There is no specific time frame for the future or non-reopening of the line, because we do not know.”
After nine closures in just 15 years of life, the final section of line 7B has not seen a train pass since August 2022 – almost two years, for more than 1,000 days without operating in total.
Ground zero of this nightmare is hidden underground. In 2007, the subway tunnel works facilitated the entry of water into the subsoil. The liquid thus contacted soluble soils, overflowing with embedded salts. And problems appeared immediately.
The same year as the inauguration of line 7B, 2007, the infrastructure managers know that “various pathologies have been detected in relation to an anomalous and increasing inflow of high conductivity water to the pumping well located between station 7 (San Fernando ) and 8 (Henares)”. Barely six months later, in June 2008, another report warned the Community “of the resulting risk of collapses in the metro tunnel and surrounding buildings.” In 2009, a third report alerted the Administration that it was “extremely urgent” to act for this reason. And in 2010, when the problems of the houses were still incipient, a exhaustive document was registered.
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“The construction of the tunnel and subsequent drainage began to mobilize the flow of groundwater and initiate a progressive process of dissolution of the land, specifically and preferably, of the existing saline levels,” it reads. “(…) In this type of terrain, water movement means the capacity for dissolution,” he emphasizes, alluding to the changes in the terrain that affect the settlement of the foundations of buildings.
Finally, in the summer of 2022, the report justifying the need for the works that still keep a three-stop section of line 7B closed today is conclusive. “The confluence of these factors that cause very serious damage as a consequence of the movement of the terrain with very rapid development requires global emergency action,” he warns. “The approximate width of some cracks in buildings reaches 10 centimeters (…) This category implies a danger of structural instability with the consequent serious danger of damage to buildings and people.”
Ghost infrastructures
After years of discussions, the Ayuso government, which has invested more than 70 million euros in trying to solve the problem, admitted that the origin of the problems in the houses, full of cracks and creaks, doors and windows that do not fit, It was due to the Metro works.
As a consequence, 41 homes have already had to be demolished. Soon, another 14 will be demolished. And then another 18 will be added, for a total of 73. A drama that has forced the evacuation of 87 homes, according to the Community, and 183 people, according to the town’s City Council. Everything, so that no one can now ensure that the work that Aguirre inaugurated is of any use: Transport can no longer ensure that Metro line 7B will work again, so it runs the risk of joining the list of ghost infrastructures that populate the region. .
These include the train that was supposed to link Móstoles with Navalcarnero, which was left half-built after spending hundreds of millions; the MP-203 highway, completed with only a few metres left, and on which not a single vehicle has ever circulated; or the closed San Martín de la Vega train.
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