Tunnel of great complexity, delicate public work feared by engineers and especially by the owners who have been passing through the now Ministry of Transport. Thirty years of persistent demands to complete the drilling, bypass the Coll de Lilla (Conca de Barberà) and leave the N-240 highway for dangerous goods trucks and fans of curves.
Finally, yesterday, 15 years after the first tender for the work (2008), the Coll de Lilla tunnel was opened to traffic. The new section of the A-27 highway is five kilometers long, between Valls (Alt Camp) and Montblanc (Conca de Barberà), and the blessed tunnel, 1,467 meters long, under the Miramar mountain range.
They are actually two parallel tunnels, one in each direction, with the latest safety technology, with six galleries to facilitate evacuation and a control center with two operators on shifts 365 days a year. The long-awaited tunnel has become an engineering challenge, especially due to the composition of the mountain range to be excavated, with six different geological materials: limestone rock, slate, conglomerate, stoneware, clay and mud.
The tunnel has been drilled very slowly and has been covered with a double circular ring to reinforce the structure. The investment has exceeded 157 million: 31 million per kilometer of road. Nearby, during the works on the AVE line in Montblanc, the unfortunate expansive clays increased the cost of the work and greatly hindered it.
All this is history, and the Camp de Tarragona celebrated yesterday together with Lleida – the former delegate of the Spanish Government, Teresa Cunillera (PSC), did not miss the inauguration – the premiere of one of the most important road infrastructures in recent years for the southern Catalonia. The tunnel saves 15 minutes of travel time and makes the road connection between Camp de Tarragona and the Costa Daurada with Lleida and Aragón much more agile and safer.
Montblanc expects a growth in demand to live throughout its area of influence, and Valls foresees a development of its industry and tourist activity. “The former mayor of Montblanc Andreu Mayayo recalled that Sant Cugat tripled the population with the Vallvidrera tunnels; Obviously we do not expect to triple it, but it is a good time to grow sustainably,” said the current mayor, Oriol Pellissó (ERC).
The joy is incomplete. The tunnel leads along the A-27 to the end of Montblanc, but does not connect with the AP-2, so it ends in “a cul de sac,” Pellissó recalled, which will predictably cause queues. But the sourest taste comes from the residents of Lilla, a small town that has suffered cracks in 90 houses as a result of the tunnel drilling. Raquel Sánchez, the Minister of Transport, promised yesterday to the neighbors to pay the 700,000 euros in compensation before the end of the year and then claim the money from the construction company.
