Spain and Morocco Revive Plans for Ambitious Gibraltar Strait Tunnel

The Spanish Society for Studies on Fixed Communications across the Strait of Gibraltar (SECEGSA), the public company in charge of analyzing the feasibility of the infrastructure, has received over the past two years 4.76 million euros to "update the technical studies and address the digital transformation of the company", as well as the preliminary project of the tunnel, carried out in 2007. This work is being done in collaboration with the National Society for Studies of the Strait of Gibraltar (SNED) of Morocco.

The tunnel project under the strait was first mentioned following a meeting between King Juan Carlos I of Spain and Hassan II of Morocco in 1979, recalls María Julia Bordonado, professor of economics at the ESIC university, with El País. The tunnel should be 28 kilometers long and have a depth of 300 meters. A study carried out in 2007 extended the length to 38.5 kilometers, including 27.7 kilometers underwater. Last November, Spain, through SECEGSA, allocated 480,000 euros to rent four seismographs to assess the seismic risk of the area.

All these studies and their associated costs, estimated at around one billion euros (about 5 to 10% of the total budget), aim to ensure the success of the project, explains Jose Luis Goberna Caride, director of SECEGSA. "The higher the percentage devoted to carrying out these preliminary studies, the lower the deviations of the final cost from the initial budget and the greater the accuracy of the execution deadlines compared to the final duration of the work". For the moment, the cost and duration of the tunnel are not specified. According to the estimates of the Spanish company, the project would require an investment of 15 billion euros.

As for the duration of the work, it was estimated at around 40 years in 2007. But, in view of the technical progress made since then, "the execution period could be halved", thinks Goberna. Beyond the cost and technical complexities, the realization of the project would be slowed down by the United Kingdom. "If we had wanted to, we would have already done it, but there have been foreign pressures not to do it," explains Bordonado, stressing that this country has in the past favored exchanges between Europe and America, rather than with Africa.