The Valencian company Contratas Vilor will be in charge of executing the comprehensive rehabilitation of the clearly degraded canopy of the França station. Adif has awarded it the works for an amount of 3.9 million euros, an amount lower than the budgeted 4.4 million euros. It is not the first time that these works have been attempted. The railway infrastructure administrator awarded them six years ago to another company that ended up renouncing the contract after having started the works. This delay deepened the deterioration and abandonment of the roof, affected by the passage of time, as well as by the effects of solar radiation and strong rains and winds.
The new award, framed within the Rodalies Plan, has an estimated execution period of 16 months, to which must be added the time it takes to close the last legal loose ends to be able to start the works. The rehabilitation seeks to extend the durability and useful life of the roof elements and reduce maintenance needs. The works will consist of renovating the roof by replacing all of the translucent polycarbonate plates that comprise it. The downspouts will also be improved, becoming stainless steel; the auxiliary structure will be cleaned and protected, and the opaque sheet metal part of the roof that is damaged will be replaced.
Specifically, the iconic canopy of the França station has a total translucent surface of 4,400 square meters and, with a width of 95 meters, its metallic structure covers 12 tracks and seven platforms. Likewise, with a length of about 110 meters and a maximum height of 36 meters, its weight reaches 1,459 tons.
This roof is one of the most emblematic elements of the station's architectural complex, which was inaugurated on the occasion of the 1929 Universal Exhibition. Designed by Andreu Montaner and manufactured in the old workshops of Maquinista Terrestre y Marítima, it required a total of 2,500 tons of iron and steel for its construction. With the 1992 Olympic Games, the canopy had already undergone a major intervention that now needs to be updated.