Spain Allocates €1.6 Million for Gibraltar Strait Tunnel Feasibility Study

According to Vozpópuli, which consulted the state contracts portal, the budget allocated to the feasibility study of the tunnel project between Spain and Morocco has been affected, dropping from 2.4 million euros to 1.6 million euros. This decrease is reportedly due to the cancellation of the reconnaissance gallery study and certain tasks related to the basic layout, informs the Spanish Society for Studies on Fixed Communication across the Strait of Gibraltar (SECEGSA).

The Spanish government has tasked the public company Ineco with carrying out a preliminary project for the tunnel under the strait that would include all technical and financial data on this project. The company is expected to submit its report by summer, according to El Debate. At the same time, SECEGSA has entrusted the German company Herrenknecht with the feasibility study of this project, particularly "the feasibility of excavating the breaches by revising the considerations of the 2007 preliminary project regarding the construction method, as well as the flysch formations."

Last November, the Spanish Executive rented four seismometers from TEKPAM Ingeniería SL for 486,420 euros to conduct a study of the seabed in the Strait of Gibraltar. The tunnel project under the strait, 38.5 km long with 27.7 km underwater, would connect Punta Paloma and Tangier and would consist of two railway tunnels. It "would constitute an essential link in the Euro-Mediterranean transport network and facilitate the flow of passengers, goods, and services," indicates the ministry led by Óscar Puente.