Spain and Morocco Revive Strait of Gibraltar Tunnel Project with New Study

The Spanish public company Ineco has recently launched a call for tenders for "the feasibility study of the excavation for the fixed communication project across the Strait of Gibraltar". The work consists of "verifying the feasibility of excavating the breaches, the most critical section of the road to be drilled by the tunnel boring machine along the Camarinal sill, by revising the considerations of the APP07 concerning the construction method", and in "a more detailed assessment of the excavation of the flysches," indicates the call for tenders.

At the end of the process, it is the company Herrenknecht Ibérica, the Spanish subsidiary of the German giant, world leader in the field of drilling and tunnel construction, which has been selected to carry out the work for a total amount of 296,400 euros. "The fixed link project is currently in the feasibility study phase and, until these are completed, the viability of the project cannot be considered," the Spanish Ministry of Transport told the media El Independiente.

In addition to viability, the cost of the Strait tunnel is the other major obstacle to its realization. "It is very expensive. That’s one of the reasons why it has been delayed," Rafael García-Monge, secretary general of the Spanish Society for Fixed Communication Studies across the Strait of Gibraltar (SECEGSA), said a year ago. Thirty years ago, the estimated cost of the project was 13 billion euros, but today it could exceed double that.

The project for a tunnel between Morocco and Spain was reactivated in April 2023 after the high-level meeting held in Rabat in February of the same year. The project was first mentioned in 1989 and consisted of the construction of a bridge. This option will be abandoned in 1995 in favor of a 38.7-kilometer railway tunnel, 27.7 kilometers of which will be underwater. This tunnel will streamline passenger and freight traffic between Spain and Morocco, and by extension, between Africa and Europe.