Strait of Gibraltar crossing
- In use
- Under construction
- Planned
- Study
The planned tunnel will pass under the Gibraltar Strait of Gibraltar in the form of a railway tunnel. Thus, the strait between Europe and Africa would be connected at Gibraltar.
Tunnel project
In December 2003, Spain and Morocco agreed at a summit to resume for the first time in 1980 discussed the project. A budget of 27 million euros was provided for the preparation of feasibility studies for a twin-tube rail tunnel with a service tunnel available.
In a three-year planning phase, a suitable route should in particular be found. The Spanish tunnel entrance should be 40 km west of Gibraltar, at Punta Palomas, arise; Moroccan portal at Tangier ( in Punta Malabata ). SNED and SECEGSA gave several seafloor exploration in order.
On 31 January 2007 the European Commission adopted " Guidelines for transport in Europe and neighboring regions". Among the five transnational axes as " motorways of the sea " there was the " South Western axis ": " connecting the south-western EU with Switzerland and Morocco, with links to trans-Maghrebin Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and its extension to Egypt ." According to a report by orf.at Morocco has introduced to his plans for a tunnel Gibraltar. The planning competition for the tunnel won the 2006 Giovanni Lombardi.
The Spanish and the Moroccan government have a joint committee appointed to investigate the feasibility of connecting the two continents. This resulted in the Euromed Transport project 2003 until 2009.
2008, there were geological exploration doubts about the practicality. However, a contract is concluded through a joint project between the Moroccan " Société Nationale d' Etudes du Détroit de Gibraltar " ( SNED ) and the Spanish " Sociedad Española de Estudios para la comunicacion fijaein Traves del Estrecho de Gibraltar SA " was established in March 2009 ( SECEGSA ).
The idea of a tunnel for motor vehicles was due to the current difficult technical engineering challenge with respect to the ventilation discarded with removal of the exhaust gases from the tunnel. The depth of the strait is about 900 meters along the shortest route, but only about 300 meters farther west, where the European and African plates meet. The shortest route is about 14 kilometers long. But the proposed route, which runs west from Tarifa to east of Tangier is 23 kilometers long, as it is not straight.
The tunnel is expected to be about 34 km long. An additional line would be necessary to link the Spanish end of the tunnel near Tarifa with Algeciras, where the Talgo connection currently ends.
The project would be funded by two public companies, SECEGSA in Spain and SNED in Morocco, with the support of the European Union. It is not yet clear whether this will be a Euromed project or a commercial consortium.
A report on the feasibility of the tunnel was presented by the European Union in 2009.
It is scheduled to take place in 2025. Are expected in the first year of operation 9 million users.
There are no official figures on the cost of the project. However, the estimated costs amount to at least five billion euros.
The proposed rail tunnel would be approximately 39 km long and would cross the Mediterranean in one section, which is approximately 300 m deep. The construction would take approximately 15 years.
An earlier plan was to connect the two continents across the narrowest part of the strait. But this idea was discarded because the tunnel would have been about 900 meters deep. The previous deepest underwater tunnel, which Eiksundtunnel, 287 m extends below sea level.
It would have to like the Euro Tunnel and terminals for the loading of vehicles will be built.
Access to rail transport in Spain
The end of 2010, the Spanish high-speed network (AVE ) network reached a total length of 2056 km, making it the longest high-speed rail network in Europe.
Access to rail transport in Morocco
In addition to the existing rail transport in Morocco two TGV lines are for the high-speed network planned: from Tanger via Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakech to Agadir and Rabat on Fez to Oujda. As the first track Tangier -Casablanca be commissioned in late 2015 in service, with between Tangier and Kenitra 320 km / h will be driven. On 23 October 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy signed during a state visit with Moroccan ministers a letter of intent to build the high-speed line between Casablanca and Tangier in Morocco. Alstom to supply 14 to TGV Duplex trains to the organization National des Chemins de Fer ( ONCF ).
Alternative bridge project
For several years, plans are made to build a bridge to connect Africa and Europe. This would be one of the longest bridges in the world. Specific requirements would provide in addition to the length, among others, the tectonic conditions and the protection of the piers from ship collisions for the designers.
Several engineers have produced designs for a bridge over the Straits of Gibraltar with different orientations and with different structural configurations.
Professor T.Y. Lin suggested a bridge between Oliveros Punto and Punto Cires that would go out with a length of 14 kilometers, deep piers, about 1000 m high towers and 5,000 m span far beyond the longest bridge built.
In 2004, architect Eugene Tsui published his concept of a floating bridge and sunken tunnels, with a three- mile-wide floating island in the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar.
Author Arthur C. Clarke described a bridge across the Strait in his 1979 published science fiction novel " Elevator to the stars".
Alternatives dam project
A unrealistischeres project is the construction of a dam across the Strait of Gibraltar. The plan goes back to the German architect Herman Soergel, who planned and followed this with the name Atlantropa project became known throughout his life. It looked right to build in the Strait of Gibraltar a giant dam, which would have had a drop in sea level in the Mediterranean by about 100 to 200 meters of sea. The primary objective of this intergenerational project should be to gain new territory and power in Europe and the African shores of the Mediterranean in abundance. A similar project for a partial dam was 1997 required to mitigate climate change by flow diversion in the Atlantic.