The burial of the AVE in Lorca will cost 300 million, 40% more than expected

Aerial image of the San Diego neighborhood where the burying of the railway will begin as it passes through the city. / JAIME INSA / AGM

Adif already has the basic project of the work ready, which could begin at the end of 2023 with an execution period of 32 months

The cost of burying the railway as it passes through the city of Lorca, in a 2.9 kilometer section, will exceed 300 million euros, 40% more than initially expected due to the rise in prices of concrete, cement and the steel. This was said yesterday by the mayor, Diego José Mateos, who held a meeting in Madrid on Wednesday with the president of Adif, María Luisa Domínguez, and her technical team to learn about the progress of the sections of the Mediterranean Corridor as it passes through the municipality .

He explained that Adif has completed the basic burial project and that it will soon be on public display for the presentation of allegations for a period of 20 days. He stressed that the expansion of the underground section announced in March with almost three kilometers of tunnel is maintained, to which are added 300 meters of ramp at the access to the city through San Diego where the tracks will begin their descent. The trains will circulate through the city underground until they reach the Ana Caicedo school, where the surface route will be recovered with a 300-meter-long access ramp.

The forecasts are that the project will go out to tender in January or February 2023 and “being optimistic” the works could begin at the end of that year with an execution period of 32 months. The councilor stated that the burial “will change the appearance of the city for the next 150 years, which is the expected useful life” of this infrastructure.

He announced that it is planned to resume rail traffic as soon as the work is completed upon arrival at the San Diego station and that while the burial is being carried out, this will be the Lorca terminus station. The mayor recalled that the Sutullena station will go underground, but the current building will be preserved on the surface of which the City Council has obtained the transfer of use for cultural activities that will be launched in the coming months.

surface parking

It is planned to build a surface car park next to Sutullena to provide service to train users and the underpasses at Santa Clara and the one that runs under the station will be removed because they make it difficult to go underground. Mateos expressed his satisfaction because in the Lorca-Pulpí section, with a planned investment of 200 million euros, Adif has taken into consideration the proposals to improve the water passages through the boulevards of Béjar and Torrecilla and has begun the modification of the project for the construction of viaducts that can absorb the foreseeable floods of water and prevent the platform of the Mediterranean Corridor from acting as a dam and becoming an obstacle to the flow of water.

In Almendricos, the proposal to improve accessibility to the new station in the district will be studied and Mateos obtained the commitment to transfer the old station and the railway line to the City Council, where the greenway will continue.