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Major improvements will be made in the vicinity of Victoria Kent station. SUR
Infrastructure

How much will it cost to make Malaga's commuter and high-speed train tunnels safe?

Adif has formalised the AVE line contract and Sando takes the lead on repairs to the C1 and C2 suburban lines where a security door in poor condition caused a train derailment just a few weeks ago

Chus Heredia

Malaga

Thursday, 10 July 2025, 20:04

Barely 15 years have passed since Malaga closed over its railway network that was scarring the ground level landscape by completing work that buried the tracks underground with tunnels. After all this time, the tunnels now require a thorough refurbishment, costing around eight million euros. No progress has been made on the surface either. There is no trace of the boulevard that was supposed to connect with the western ring road (Ronda Oeste) and was destined to be a key artery for mobility in Malaga. State regulations currently prevent such a connection.

The 7.5 million euros in construction costs for both high-speed and commuter rail operations demonstrate a crushing reality: there must be demands for better infrastructure, but maintenance of what is already in place is no less important, especially nowadays in a liberalised railway market and a network experiencing exponential growth in train traffic and different operators. These contracts are combined with consulting, technical assistance and construction management services contracts too, bringing the total to eight million euros.

Incident

Regarding the Cercanías commuter trains, we are reminded of a recent incident that, fortunately, just gave us all a scare, disrupting rail traffic for two days. A security door, much like those used for emergency evacuations that are made of metal, sturdy and designed to withstand extremely high temperatures, ended up on the tracks, causing a train to derail. Fortunately, the train was empty at the time. Whether due to vandalism or poor maintenance, this occurrence shows the importance of carefully maintaining such sensitive infrastructure.

This Tuesday, Adif formalised the contract for the work on the high-speed tunnel, which carries Renfe's AVE and Avro services and Ouigo and Iryo trains in and out of Malaga city. There are 26 daily services. When it first came into operation, there were half a dozen. The contract was awarded to the joint venture consortium of UTE Túnel 10 Fonsán-Marco.

This cut-and-cover tunnel suffers from a variety of issues: degrading concrete, corrosion of reinforcements such as rail fasteners, spalling, leaks and dampness with efflorescence, deteriorated joints, cracks, damaged tracks and drainage systems that are no longer in good condition.

Work to be done

The project will take ten months. It will involve work on almost two kilometres of tunnel where, after numerous inspections, the aforementioned damage has been detected.

Therefore, the project includes work on the platform, renewing the concrete, studying the dynamics and sources of the leaks, general cleaning, cleaning surfaces with pressurised water, sealing, joint repairs, graffiti removal, applying a special highly durable paint and replacing reinforcements (ballast, fasteners, subgrade) or at least cleaning them, among others.

The purpose of the other contract is to carry out much-needed work on the Victoria Kent tunnel between km 0/843 and 2/798 on line 436 Malaga-Fuengirola to deliver the necessary structural improvements to this tunnel so that it operates without further problems.

The planned interventions consist of tackling the source of waterlogging, checking for blockages and obstructions, restoring drains, cleaning concrete sections, removing graffiti, injecting cement, grout and other synthetic materials to repair cracks, treating and repairing surface areas with damp, repairing with fibre-reinforced mortar, sandblasting efflorescence, restoring construction joints, repairing degraded concrete and reinforcements...the list goes on.

In this case, Sando is the company currently best positioned in the public tender launched by Adif, in which Vilor, Asch and Apimosa-Hergón are also competing.

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surinenglish How much will it cost to make Malaga's commuter and high-speed train tunnels safe?

How much will it cost to make Malaga's commuter and high-speed train tunnels safe?
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