Giant drill leaves Barcelona unscathed

The predictions of the doomsayers never came true. During underground drilling work to dig a new tunnel in Barcelona to link the future high-speed AVE train station of Sagrera with Sants, the Sagrada Familia did not fall down. Nor for that matter did La Pedrera or the Torre del Fang.

Barcino, as the enormous drill that dug the 5.1-kilometer hole that runs under the Mallorca and Provença streets is called, has completed its journey across the city. The project cost 179 million euros and means that by 2012, the high-speed train link between Barcelona and Figueres will be complete, according to the Public Works Ministry.

Barcino poked its head through at around 11am on Tuesday morning in the area between Provença and Entença. Awaiting its appearance through the last layers of rock and earth was a welcoming committee, led by Public Works minister José Blanco, who said that the new tunnel, part of the branch linking Madrid, Barcelona and the French border, represented the "definitive commitment" to the so-called "Mediterranean Corridor," a future high-speed network that will run all the way along Spain's Mediterranean coast.

Safety first

By 2012, the minister said, the AVE high-speed train would pass through Sagrera- although the actual station itself would only be complete a full four years later.

Once the dust had settled on the scene, the speeches began. Blanco said the voices that had spoken up to warn against potential disasters that might be caused by the tunnel's route under historical parts of the city- in particular Gaudí's world-famous Sagrada Familia, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site- had helped to ensure the digging of the tunnel was as safe as possible.

The minister went on to run through the investment that has been made in Catalonia: 14.7 billion euros since 2004, which, he said, represents the "transition of a Spain on the roads to a Spain on the rail."

The mayor of the city, Xavier Trias, also congratulated the engineers for their work and their commitment to the safety of the job in hand. It was, of course, a job that Trias never supported, given that he believed a different route should have been chosen. But now, he said, is the time to "look to the future, and not the past."