The structure of the future Sagrera station has already taken shape with all its magnitude and has just reached its highest point. First were the Commuter tracks on the lower level, then the central lobby 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 basis of the large linear park that will cover the mastodontic concrete shell that has been erected non-stop for 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 Administrator (Adif) are rather nondescript, the Sagrera one incorporates a roof that will make it unique. Eight modules in the shape of an inverted pyramid will give shape to skylights in 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.
For this reason, 281 beams are placed in the central structure of the roof, which will support the future promenade designed for the residents and where the vegetation will play an important role. This part, which will begin when the station is finished, will be complemented by the facilities and the interior architecture, which is still in the process of drafting the construction project by the architect Fermín Vázquez. A huge wooden canopy will be the symbol of the end of works that do not yet have a scheduled date.
However, the work is clearly progressing and the construction manager of the work, Alberto Alcañiz, remembers how barren this place was when he arrived in 2017, when not even the foundations had been laid. Now you have to raise your head to see the dimension of a large structure that is lost in the horizon with more than a kilometer in length, in which a dozen different construction contracts are being developed in parallel. With the works at a pace never seen in Adif and the level of overall execution reaching 70%, Adif's deputy director of construction, José Vicente Romero, takes heart from what he defines as "the most civil engineering work Gran de España", in which work is certified for an approximate value of between 9.5 and 10 million euros each month.
While large cranes work at height to make the roof a reality, on the surface of the upper level operators are installing the high-speed tracks, along which the first trains are expected to pass before the end of 2024. D In this way, the trend of a major railway milestone in La Sagrera will be followed 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 and in 2024 it is the turn of the AVE.
It will be the first with a single road on the sea side. Then, throughout 2025, once the space occupied by the provisional route of the last few 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 already be operational, which will that the trains going from Sants to Girona, Figueres or France pass through both ends and the central tracks will be reserved for those that start or end there.
For the time being, the entry of high-speed trains into La Sagrera will have no practical effects for travelers, as it will not yet have a stop. Of course, over the course of next year it will mean an important change for the various operators that provide service on the Barcelona-Madrid line, since the first four parking lanes of 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 at Can Tunis or on the same platforms of the Sants station at full speed. On the day that the 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 passengers get on and off.
