The extension of line 8 of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC) from Plaza Espanya to Gràcia will be built about fifty meters deep, but the effects expected at ground level during the works will be significant and long in Eixample. Once the detours of the affected services have been completed, the moment of truth arrives to make a reality at the end of 2029 of the little more than four kilometers that aspire to have a demand of 70,000 daily passengers.
The works will last about five years, with January 8 being the day that work is scheduled to formally begin to prepare for the arrival of a tunnel boring machine that will begin to excavate the subsoil in 2025, once the attack shaft is fully constructed. Gran Via, next to Plaza Espanya, between Llançà and Vilamarí streets.
Through that point, about 100 meters long and twenty meters wide, the tunnel boring machine will enter. In this initial environment the main effects will also occur since the corresponding land management space is needed, the extraction belts, the logistics area for the collection of construction material… Much of it had to be installed in Joan Park Miró, at the height of the Arenas shopping center, which has provoked colorful complaints from neighborhood entities and schools who consider the grove of trees there as one of the few green spaces they have in the district.
Neighborhood pressure has led those responsible for the Generalitat and Barcelona City Council to spend the last six months studying possible alternatives to installing the logistics zone in the park. After many considerations, the solution finally chosen is to progressively occupy, starting in the summer of 2024, a smaller part of the grove than planned by moving a part of the collection area directly to Gran Via, next to the access to the tunnel boring machine
In this way, from the 8,800 square meters with 178 trees that were going to be affected, it has been increased to 5,300 square meters and 118 trees, 12% of the total park and 40% less compared to the initial project. “It is the best option from the point of view of impact on residents, mobility, sustainability and costs,” defends the Secretary of Mobility and Infrastructure of the Generalitat, Marc Sanglas. All of this will mean an extra cost of six million euros to the 412 million budgeted investment.
Among the alternatives, there was that of occupying the slab of the roof of the rainwater tank and the tank where the cars taken by the municipal tow truck end up. Both underground infrastructures would require significant structural reinforcement that would leave them temporarily out of service and increase the cost of the work by around 14 million.
On the other hand, the occupation of the entire Gran Via has been ruled out due to the impact it would have on the city’s mobility – some 50,000 vehicles daily – and on a greater number of residents. The same would happen if the decision was made to occupy Paral·lel Avenue, with an average intensity of 42,000 vehicles per day. “The emissions due to the change in mobility would far exceed the savings in emissions represented by trees,” highlights the general director of Infrastructure, David Prat.
A final option that was proposed was to occupy part of the Fira de Barcelona venue, but the structure to move the land there would entail an extra cost of 16 million euros to which compensation would have to be added for the effects on the fair activity and the subsequent replacement. The City Council’s chief engineer, Oriol Altisench, defines this space as “an engine of prosperity that cannot be put at risk.”
The impact on the surroundings of Plaza Espanya is the most serious due to the noise made by the residents of Joan Miró Park, although the effects will also be noticed where the future stations are going to be built: in Plaza Espanya itself, on the street Urgell next to the Clínic hospital, on Francesc Macià and in Gal·la Placídia square. In all these places, wells will have to be opened to build the corresponding accesses, although they will be rectangular and of a much more discreet size than those used on line 9.
Work will also have to be done in Consell de Cent, where the construction of an emergency exit is planned in the green axis, which had not been talked about until now and which will probably arouse reluctance considering that it will touch an entire urban symbol of the recent times.
