The future of Barcelona airport is still open and, now, on hiatus due to the political situation. But the debate and interest of Catalan civil society in promoting infrastructure does not wane. On the contrary, as time passes without the institutions agreeing to its improvement, new proposals arise to expand El Prat. One of the last to reach business circles proposes an option that had not reached public opinion until now: extending the transversal runway of the airport instead of the third runway, gaining ground towards the sea.
The promoters of this alternative are Josep Antoni Acebillo, who was the chief architect of the Barcelona City Council, and Albert Vilalta, chief engineer in the consistory between 2000 and 2006, and has appeared in the commission on the Foment del Treball airport . It consists of modifying the current crossed runway of the airport, the one that is normally used at night or when there is little aircraft traffic, cutting it at the end that faces inland to move it away from the runway, and extending it over the sea – see graph attach-. The length of the third track, on the other hand, would be reduced.
In order to extend the transversal track towards the sea, its promoters propose creating a breakwater. In this way, as they defend, it would be possible to have a runway long enough for large planes, those that operate the intercontinental flights that are to be increased, to take off and do so towards the sea, so that there is no more noise over neighboring towns. This solution would not affect the protected area of La Ricarda, nor that of Remolar, which could even increase the wetlands towards the sea.
It would affect, on the other hand, the line of the beach of El Prat de Llobregat and Viladecans. At this point, the authors of the proposal maintain that the beach is already in regression and that a breakwater would help protect part of it. As for the winds that the planes that eventually take off from it would encounter, they maintain that the situation would be manageable with different configuration options depending on the time of year and the winds. Between April and September –months of increased air traffic and more life for residents abroad– the planes would take off from the runway that crossed towards the sea, with no acoustic impact 24 hours a day. From October to March, they put on the table the option of operating as currently -so that certain planes would need to take off from the interior runway on occasion, like now- or even make all takeoffs from that runway, although that would mean a greater cost. acoustic impact in the winter months that should be compensated with an agreement that included corrective measures on the houses of Gavà Mar and Castelldefels.
The proposal, which does not have an economic report associated with it, is a reformulation of a project already proposed by the Barcelona Regional agency in 2004 and is inspired by the extension of tracks over the sea made at JFK in New York and in Sydney. It also highlights how cross-lane trading works in places like Boston.
Apart from the expansion of the infrastructure, the approach of Acebillo and Vilalta highlights the need to develop the airport city on the land designed for it for years, near T2, to facilitate the modernization of El Prat. This must be, according to them, the main objective. In other words, turning it into a socioeconomic catalyst in which, in addition to travelers, cargo plays a much greater role than it currently does. For every million passengers, they point out, it should create a thousand jobs.
This proposal for a transversal runway has reached some member of ERC and also of Aena informally – the airport manager has always maintained that the best option for El Prat is the one that was already presented at the time and has not stated otherwise. . And it adds to others already presented before the Foment commission. These include extending the third runway by only 400 metres, lengthening it both to the east and west, strengthening Reus and Girona or the new runway over the sea championed by Joaquim Coello, among others.
The employers' association is already finalizing the conclusions on the airport after months of debate, which it hopes to present in September. They will include the alternatives that have been considered most viable. Also in September it was planned to start the negotiating table between the Generalitat and the Government on the airport, as agreed by ERC and the PSC in the budget pact. The investiture negotiation now adds uncertainty.
