| Work Detail |
Adif AV has launched a tender for the design and subsequent construction of the security, signalling, and fixed telecommunications installations on the 70 km Talayuela – Plasencia high-speed section. The tender is worth EUR 131.4 million and Adiv AV says that the project is expected to be co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The contract is divided into three distinct execution periods covering 8 months for project development, 18 months for facility construction, and 48 months for carrying out maintenance work. The winner of the contract will also be responsible for maintenance of the interlocking facilities, train protection system, Centralised Traffic Control, auxiliary detection systems, fixed telecommunications, and power supply system for a period of 4 years, with the possibility of a one-year extension. Talayuela – Plasencia high-speed section is part of the 437 km Madrid – Extremadura – Portuguese Border high-speed railway strategically located on the Atlantic Corridor. The high-speed line is structured into three major sections: Madrid – Oropesa (200 km); Talayuela – Plasencia (70 km); and Plasencia – Cáceres – Badajoz (168 km, of which 18 km is the Mérida bypass). Adif AV ??continues to work on simultaneous projects in different areas and points along the line. The Plasencia – Cáceres – Badajoz section continues to be improved, having been in service since 2022 and electrified since 2023. On this section, progress is being made in testing to complete the commissioning of the entire Mérida bypass and the ERTMS L2 signaling system. In July 2022, Adif inaugurated the 150 km Plasencia – Badajoz section for which has invested EUR 1.7 billion. The line allows the operation of long distance, medium distance and regional trains. In December 2023, the high-speed line to Extremadura reached a new milestone with the commissioning of 195 km of electrified track connecting Plasencia, Cáceres, Mérida, and Badajoz in December 2023. On the Talayuela – Plasencia high-speed section Adif AV continues to work on the platform construction, which has already been completed on four of the eight sub-sections into which its construction has been structured. These four sub-sections (Talayuela – Arroyo de Santa María, Navalmoral de la Mata – Casatejada, Casatejada – Toril, and Toril – Río Tiétar) have a total length of 39.1 km, which represents more than half of the total length of the section. The completion of this section is estimated at EUR 680 million. To complete the entire route, work continues on the platform construction of the Arroyo de Santa María – Navalmoral de la Mata, Río Tiétar – Malpartida de Plasencia, Malpartida de Plasencia – Plasencia station, and Madrid – Plasencia connecting branch lines. Once the platform construction is complete, the next phases will include the Navalmoral assembly base, track installation, and electrification, as well as safety installations. At the same time, the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility is working on defining the route of the Madrid – Oropesa, the third and final section of the future high-speed line, that will link the capital with Extremadura and the Portuguese border. In parallel, Adif continues to make progress in improving Extremadura’s connections via conventional rail, both on the Madrid – Valencia de Alcántara line, with the drafting of the electrification project, and on the Mérida – Puertollano line, for which approximately EUR 167 million has already been mobilised for its renovation, and on the Mérida – Los Rosales line, with improvement projects also underway. The entire project to deliver Madrid – Extremadura high-speed railway is estimated at EUR 3.8 billion. The commissioning of the first phase of the Plasencia – Cáceres – Mérida – Badajoz line in July 2022 represented a new boost to the development of Spain’s high-speed rail network, which exceeds 4,000 km in length. Since then, Adif AV has launched the Venta de Baños (Palencia)-Burgos high-speed rail line, the high-speed connection to Murcia, and the Pajares bypass on the León – Asturias high-speed rail line. After an investment of more than EUR 65 billion over the last three decades, high-speed rail in Spain connects more than fifty cities in thirty provinces. Adif continues to advance its high-speed rail deployment with a portfolio of ongoing projects worth EUR 9 billion, including the development of lines to Cantabria, the Basque Country, and Navarre, the line linking Murcia and Almería, and the new phases of the Extremadura corridor. Most of these are part of the Atlantic and Mediterranean trans-European corridors. |
