After it was included in the political exchanges of the budget negotiation, the extension of El Prat returns to occupy the debate. Suddenly a parked project has been revived, evaluations are made, proposals are presented. It is evident that an extension of this type is complex, controversial and slow to solve. In our case, I don't think the way in which it has approached and sold it to Aena has helped anything, halfway between arrogance, generic messages, Power Point slides and political and institutional follow-up to music that sounds like good (hub, internationalization, talent acquisition...), but without in-depth analysis of options, advantages and disadvantages.
It is very likely that Aena has made them and does not say anything. Now, what is strange is that a project of this scope has not been duly analyzed by who defends the public interest (in this case the State Government and the Generalitat, above all). It would have served to organize the debate and avoid the media noise surrounding the enlargement. Precisely, the proposal to extend the sea runway through La Ricarda is about noise, but about real noise (that of large aircraft that make intercontinental flights).
El Prat already has a runway for this type of aircraft (the interior, 24R-06L) from more than 50 years ago (the first flight in this category, a Boeing 747, dated August 3, 1970). The problem is that increasing their current number would increase noise pollution in the residential areas of Gavà Mar and, to a lesser extent, in a part of Castelldefels. Aena, probably due to a disputed history, does not contemplate growing here, it is easier to deal with fish, reptiles and birds from Ricarda.
However, he has at his hands a solution that he has been applying everywhere: “acoustic insulation plans”, designed to minimize (at the expense of Aena) disturbances due to noise. According to data from the company itself, from 2000 to 2022 actions were approved in 28,577 homes, for a total amount of 351 million euros (an average of 12,271 euros per action). The first airport with actions is Barajas, with 12,989 approved homes and 161 million euros, the following are Valencia (4,127 and homes), Alicante (3,223), Bilbao (2,196), Palma de Mallorca (1,315) and Tenerife (1,116), among those with more than 1,000 homes. There is no quantitative detail about El Prat.
If so many homes are isolated, why couldn't those affected be isolated in this case of El Prat? Perhaps we would not talk about lengthening tracks or making new ones. The isolation of the houses must be possible, no matter how much the cost of the actions for Aena would surely skyrocket due to the residential category of the area. Of course, with the added problem that isolating gardens and swimming pools is very complicated...
