Tunnel of great complexity, delicate public work feared by the engineers and above all by the holders who have passed through what is now the Ministry of Transport. Thirty years of persistent claims from the territory to complete the drilling, bypass the Lilla pass (Conca de Barberà) and leave the N-240 road for dangerous goods trucks and benders.
Finally, yesterday, fifteen 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 motorway is five kilometers long, between Valls (Alt Camp) and Montblanc (Conca de Barberà) and the long-awaited 1,467 meter long tunnel, under the Serra de Miramar.
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 duty 24/365 hours of the day The desired tunnel has become an engineering challenge, especially due to the composition of the mountain range to be excavated, with six different geological materials: limestone, slates, conglomerates, sandstone, clays and mud.
The tunnel has been drilled very little by little and covered with a double circular ring to strengthen its structure. The investment has exceeded 157 million: 31 million per kilometer of road. Very close by, during the works on the AVE line in Montblanc, the dreaded expansive clays skyrocketed the cost of the work and were about to torpedo it.
All this is history and Camp de Tarragona celebrated yesterday together with Lleida - the former delegate of the Spanish Government, Teresa Cunillera (PSC), did not want to miss the inauguration - the premiere of one of the most transcendent road infrastructures of recent years in the south of Catalonia. The tunnel saves 15 minutes of travel and makes the road connection between Camp de Tarragona and the Costa Daurada with Lleida and Aragon much quicker and safer.
Montblanc expects a growth in demand to live in the entire area of influence, and Valls foresees a development of industry and tourist activity. "The former mayor of Montblanc Andreu Mayayo recalled that Sant Cugat tripled the population with the Vallvidrera tunnels; obviously, we don't expect to triple it, but it's a good time to grow in a sustained way", emphasized the current mayor, Oriol Pallissó (ERC).
The joy is, however, incomplete. The tunnel leads along the A-27 to the Montblanc terminus, but does not connect with the AP-2, so it ends in "a cul-de-sac", as Pallissó lamented, which will surely cause queues . But the most sour taste is for the residents of Lilla, a small town that has suffered cracks in 90 houses as a result of the drilling. Raquel Sánchez, the Minister of Transport, committed 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.
