EU to review Morocco-Spain tunnel project

12/08/2008

Morocco and Spain are working to finalise plans for a tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar, to present to a joint EU-Moroccan commission in October. If successful, the tunnel would link Africa to Europe by rail.

By Naoufel Cherkaoui for Magharebia in Rabat – 12/08/08

[www.sned.gov.ma] An underground rail link between Morocco and Spain is closer to becoming a reality as joint feasibility studies near completion.

The results of feasibility tests for a tunnel linking Morocco and Spain are nearly complete and will be presented by the two countries to the EU in October, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Angel Moratinos announced last Monday (August 4th).

After meeting with his Moroccan counterpart Taieb Fassi Fihri in Tangier, Moratinos said a tunnel would "allow Africa to be connected to Europe through two strong links; Morocco and Spain."

The idea of linking the two countries dates back to two agreements signed in 1980 and 1989. Several studies were launched to examine the technical issues surrounding the project, but progress on the link slowed as relations between the two countries soured.

In 1995, the Joint Committee for the Continental Link turned away from the idea of a suspended bridge due to factors identified by the National Company for Studying the Gibraltar Strait, including fears of interrupting marine navigation and the risk of automobile accidents. Committee members opted instead for a dual tunnel made of iron.

In July 2007, the project was fully resurrected during a visit by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to Morocco's King Mohammed VI. Later that summer, the Joint Committee met with official delegations and both countries submitted the results of their feasibility studies and plans for railroad connections in the north and the south.

After meeting again in January 2008, the Joint Committee agreed to review the results of the latest feasibility studies on October 13th in Luxembourg.

Preliminary results indicate that constructing the tunnel will be challenging, if not impossible.

"The material here is not compact enough to allow an initial excavation," the BBC reported Angel Aparicio, who leads Spain's government department in charge of the tunnel, as saying in July.

"It is clay with rock and so it is not as compact as it is in the rest. As we have a lot of water we have a very high pressure and we are not sure whether we could go through with the tunnelling," he added.

Both the Spanish and Moroccan governments support the tunnel as a potential transport hub between the two countries.

The tunnel and its trains would carry passengers and goods between Tangier and a coastal city in Spain. The total length of the tunnel would be 37.7km, of which 27.2km would pass under the sea bed.

Construction would take place in three stages and cost an estimated $8 billion. First, the exploratory tunnel would be excavated. Second, the first iron tunnel would be built. And third, the two land sections of the service tunnel will be completed, linking high-speed train networks in the two countries. Under the plan, the tunnel would enter into operation in approximately 2025.