The Line 9 tunnel boring machine reaches the gates of Sarrià

The Line 9 metro tunnel boring machine, which restarted work just over a year ago on Paseo Manuel Girona, is now a few meters from Sarrià station, where excavation is approximately halfway complete. The Government is working with the forecast that in 2027 the stations of the central section of the line will progressively come into operation, although it is not yet possible to specify in what order, because all of them are in different phases of execution or it is even still necessary to start excavating the shafts. The President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, visited Sarrià station this Friday, from where he highlighted that Line 9 is a "key" infrastructure and an "unequivocal commitment to more sustainable transport and mobility."

Currently, the tunnel boring machine is stopped for maintenance reasons at the height of the Sarrià car park, a few meters from where the shaft of the new station continues to be excavated. According to sources from the Department of Territory, the machine is expected to resume operation from the first half of August to continue advancing towards Sarrià in the first instance, where in the future it will also have an interchange with the FGC, and subsequently towards Mandri, where it will arrive at the end of the year, and Lesseps, where it will do so at the end of 2024, reports ACN.

The ten stations that make up the central section of Line 9 ---9.4 kilometers between Zona Universitària and La Sagrera--- are in different phases of execution. For example, in Mandri, excavation is being completed (it is already at 92%), while in other cases, such as El Putxet, work still needs to begin. In others, such as Lesseps station, the shaft is already done; those of Guinardó and Maragall have also been completely excavated and, in Sanllehí, work is very advanced.

With the central section of L9 and including L10, both lines will go from having a demand of 23 million annual passengers to 113 million. According to the Generalitat, it will also allow more than 8,000 vehicles to be removed from the road network and will mean a reduction of 21 million kilometers per year; it will generate savings of 8.3 million hours and 5,100 tons of CO₂ per year.

The current works on the central section require an investment of 925 million euros and will allow the metro to reach neighborhoods that currently do not have this public transport. In total, between Line 9 and 10, there are still about fifteen stations pending inauguration, including those in the central section and others planned but not scheduled, such as Polígono Pratenc ---at the end of L10---; or others that are finished but not in service, such as Eixample Nord and Ciutat Aeroportuària (L9), and others scheduled but not started, such as Motors (L10).