The largest of all the infrastructure works carried out by the Generalitat, the completion of the central part of the L9 of the metro - which in this section will coincide with the L10 -, valued at 925 million euros, has been going full steam ahead since work restarted in June 2022 after a decade-long shutdown. The tunnel boring machine has drilled 1.2 kilometers this past year. It is not working now, because it is under maintenance. In total, three kilometers of tunnel remain to be drilled. The first fortnight of August will be put back into operation, it will cross the Via Augusta, pass under the Sarrià station and arrive in Mandri at the end of the year or the beginning of next year. Later, after overcoming Putxet, it will reach the final goal, Lesseps, before the end of 2024. This is the current schedule that those responsible for this project expect to meet if there are no unforeseen circumstances.
The imminent arrival of the tunnel boring machine in Sarrià prompted a visit yesterday by the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, to the future stop, moreover, in the midst of the general election campaign. Accompanied by the Minister of Territory, Ester Capella, he highlighted his government's "commitment to public transport and sustainable mobility", in which the L9 is key because it will "reconnect the neighborhoods of the metropolitan area", since work is being done on the 9.2 kilometers that separate the University Zone from La Sagrera, stations to which this line and the L10 arrive from El Prat and l'Hospitalet, on the one hand, and from Santa Coloma and Badalona, on the other the other All this contrasts, in the opinion of the head of the Catalan Executive, with Rodalies, which "does not work as it should". And he again demanded from the Spanish Government the investments he needs and the complete transfer.
It is one thing to drill the tunnel and another to have it ready for trains to run through. Even if the gallery is completed by the end of 2024, the intermediate slab that will separate it - circulation will be on two levels -, the tracks, the catenary lines, the signaling... Complex tasks that will extend commissioning until in 2027. Although it will only be with some station. In this section there are nine slopes (Campus Nord, Manuel Girona, Sarrià, Mandri, el Putxet, Lesseps, Sanllehy, Guinardó-Hospital de Sant Pau and Maragall) and three (Camp Nou, la Sagrera-TAV and Motors) in other areas also scheduled. They have different rates of execution – some have not yet started – so they will be put into operation gradually until 2029.
During the visit to Sarrià, you could see the magnitude of the work. At the moment, only work is being done on the civil works of this station, the access well of 24 meters in diameter of which half of the 72 meters of depth that it will have has been excavated, and of the Mandri, which is in 90% As for Sarrià, the bottom should be reached at the beginning of 2027. The first 29 meters were excavated with mechanical means. But for the rest, of harder rock, microblasting is required. As for Madri, with softer terrain, it is expected to be ready this year or early next year.
In North Campus, Manuel Girona and El Putxet, the wells have not yet started. In the latter, the works will start soon. In the previous phases, those of Lesseps, Guinardó-Hospital de Sant Pau and Maragall were completed, and the one of Sanllehy was left very advanced. These stations are not being worked on now. In all of them, as in the tunnel, once the civil work is done, the works of interior architecture and installations will have to be undertaken, which in some cases still have the projects to be drawn up.
