Spain proposes alternative to reopen the Somport Tunnel through the Pyrenees

Spain wants to invest around 93 million euros to reopen the Somport Tunnel, a railway tunnel connecting the country with France across the Pyrenees, part of the Pau-Canfranc line closed since 1970. The decision comes after an Informative Study proposed three different alternatives for the reopening of the Somport Tunnel.

The first alternative, selected as the best one by the Spanish Ministry of Transport, entails the removal of the existing cladding, which would be replaced by a 20 cm lining. This would also lead to “over-excavating the original rock cavity as necessary”.

The second alternative proposed in the study includes keeping the existing cladding of the tunnel and adding a 10 cm extra layer for fire and water protection. Moreover, the bottom of the tunnel would be lowered. The third and last alternative presuppose new interior cladding on top of the existing one to try and “eliminate the risk posed by the uncertainty of the structural capacity”, the Ministry added. The Spanish public will now have 30 working days from the publication of the study to submit comments on the initative.

Next step: ventilation system

Now that the first alternative has been identified as the most appropriate, the question of ventilation remains. Here, the study made two suggestions to choose from: implementing 36 fans of 1200 mm in diameter or 62 fans with a 900 mm diameter. The former option would see 18 niches, 10 on the Spanish side and 8 on the French one, while with the latter the fans would be placed individually, 32 in Spain and 30 in France. The distance between fans (or pair of fans in case of the first alternative) would be 100 metres in both cases.

France is taking steps as well

For a long time, Spain seemed to be the only one willing to reopen the Somport Tunnel and, consequently, the Pau-Canfranc railway and reinstate international rail freight traffic across the Pyrenees. However, the French infrastructure manager SNCF Réseau recently launched a three-month public consultation concerning the reopening of the line, possibly envisioned by 2032.

The Somport Tunnel

The Somport rail tunnel, measuring 7.8 kilometres, was built between 1908 and 1915 and was put into service only in 1928 because of World War I. After connecting France and Spain for over 40 years, the tunnel, together with the whole Canfranc-Bedous border crossing, was closed in 1970 after an accident involving a freight train destroyed the Pont de l’Estangue rail bridge in France. Reopening this section would lead to the reopening of the line that connects Zaragoza to Pau and then the rest of France, which would be highly beneficial for rail freight.