The structure of the future Sagrera station has already taken shape in all its magnitude and has just reached its highest point. First there were the Rodalies tracks on the lower level, then the central concourse and finally the high-speed tracks on the upper floor, now in the process of being crowned by an innovative roof that culminates the construction of the infrastructure. This roof, in turn, will one day be the base of the large linear park that, with the size of five Eixample blocks, will cover the mammoth concrete framework that has risen non-stop in the last six years between Sant Martí and Sant Andreu after too many years of paralysis and accumulated delays.
Although the stations built in recent years by the railway infrastructure manager (Adif) are rather nondescript, the Sagrera station incorporates a roof that will make it unique. Eight modules in the shape of an inverted pyramid will shape skylights on the roof that will illuminate an innovative structure with an unusual design that aims to maximize the entry of natural light on the high-speed tracks.
To do this, 281 beams are being placed in the central structure of the roof, which will support the future walk designed for the residents and in which the vegetation will have an important role, although the tender for this part corresponds to the Barcelona City Council and has not yet been announced. has activated. The drought could condition a project that in virtual recreations looks full of plants, although all parties involved trust that the current lack of water situation will have been resolved when the time comes to face its construction.
This part, which will begin when the station has completed the last phase of the works, will be carried out in parallel with the facilities and interior architecture, which is still in the process of drafting the construction project by the studio of architect Fermín Vázquez. A huge wooden pergola will be the symbol of the end of some works that do not yet have a scheduled date, but which between one thing and another will be around the end of the decade.
However, the work is clearly progressing and the project's construction manager, Alberto Alcañiz, remembers the wasteland that this place was when he arrived in 2017, when the foundations had not yet been laid. Now you have to raise your head to see the size of a large structure that disappears into the horizon, more than a kilometer long, in which a dozen different works contracts are being developed in parallel.
With the works at a pace never seen before in Adif and the execution of the works reaching 70%, the deputy director of construction of Adif, José Vicente Romero, takes pride in what he defines as “the largest civil engineering work in Spain.” , in which works worth between 9.5 and 10 million euros are being certified each month on average in the last two years, values that no other work is reaching in the country.
While large cranes work at height to make the roof a reality, on the surface of the upper level the workers are installing the high-speed tracks, where the first trains are expected to pass before the end of this year in 2024. The tone of a great railway milestone in La Sagrera every two years. In December 2020, the trains of the Maresme de Rodalies line began to pass through the lower level of the station, in December 2022 those of the Granollers line did so and in 2024 it is the turn of the AVE.
From then on, the residents of La Sagrera will no longer see trains passing on the surface. Everyone will already be redirected through the interior of the future intermodal station. It will be first with a single track on the sea side.
Subsequently, throughout 2025, once the space occupied by the provisional layout of recent years has been freed, the works on the upper part of the station on the mountain side can be completed and the two main tracks will now be operational, making it The trains that go from Sants to Girona, Figueres or France pass through both ends and the central tracks will be reserved for those that start or finish there. This scenario is drawn for the end of 2025 or beginning of 2026, at which time the purely railway work can be considered finished.
For now, the entry of high-speed trains to La Sagrera will not have practical effects for travelers since it will not yet have a stop. Of course, over the next year it will mean an important change for the various operators that provide service (Renfe, Ouigo and Iryo) since the first four parking lanes in the train treatment area will be enabled.
In this new facility it will be possible to clean the trains and load the catering, among other operational issues that are now carried out in Can Tunis or on the platforms of the Sants station at full speed. The day Sagrera is open, it will be the only station in Spain that has a logistics area of these characteristics a few meters from the platforms where travelers get on and off. Although it is still missing at that time, its entry into service will already allow the platforms of the six tracks of Sants station to be decongested, subjected to very high pressure since the liberalization of the railway sector which has increased the supply between Barcelona and Madrid.
