The start-up of Barcelona Metro line 9 once again has a completion date. The Generalitat places it in 2029, almost 30 years after construction began in 2003. The Government approved this Wednesday the Economic Financial Plan (PEF) to finish the central section of the infrastructure between Zona Universitària and La Sagrera, with an additional investment of 946 million euros.
[subscribe_newsletter_esp]
This is the cost that the Government calculates for the pending works on the L9, where about four kilometers of tunnel still need to be built. It wants to finance it with its own resources, via budgetary contributions from the Department of Territory. For now, the option of using the pre-granted loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB), for an amount of 740 million euros, is frozen.
If for a long time it was said that this loan was essential to finish line 9 of the Barcelona Metro, now, the coronavirus crisis has changed the landscape. The Generalitat also hopes to obtain European reconstruction funds for this project, resources that can serve to accelerate the works of the L9 and even reduce the planned deadlines.
The costs of the L9 have tripled the initially foreseen cost, which was expected to be less than 2,000 million euros. According to a recent report by the Sindicatura de Comptes, the figure stood at almost 7,000 million euros until 2016, including investment and financial costs, which represents an overrun of 5,000 million.
With the approval of this economic plan, the future of a key infrastructure for the city of Barcelona is unblocked, as is the La Sagrera station, through which the L9 will pass. Both have been victims of multiple delays and cost overruns. What will be the new intermodal station of the Catalan capital also achieved a historic milestone on Tuesday, seeing some Rodalies trains pass through its interior for the first time, although, for now, they do so without stopping.
Pending actions
The L9 will connect Zona Universitària and La Sagrera stations within nine years, finally linking the south and north branches of lines L9 and L10. To do this, about four kilometers of tunnel between the future Lesseps and Manel Girona stations need to be completed. Works will resume in 2021, after being halted since 2011. First, the tunnel will be finished, with the reactivation of the tunnel boring machines, which are stopped many meters underground at Lesseps and Manel Girona stations.
Once this step is complete, the stations of the central section of the L9 will gradually be put into service. The planned schedule is to inaugurate four stations in 2026 (Lesseps, Guinardó, La Sagrera, and Sagrera TAV); five in 2027 (Camp Nou, Sarrià, Mandri, Sanllehy, and Maragall), and the last four between 2028 and 2029 (Motors, Campus Nord, Manel Girona, and Putxet). In parallel to these works, the pending L10 stations in Zona Franca will also be completed.