In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, China surprised the world with the construction of a huge hospital, the Wuhan Volcano, in a record time of 10 days. Concretely, it was in the first days of February 2020 that the city’s mayor, Zhou Xianwang, handed the People’s Army medical staff the keys to the new resource to deal with the health alert.
The reconstruction of Valencia’s main road and rail infrastructure, destroyed by DANA on October 29, has not been left behind. Concretely, the partial resumption of Cercanías services, the full AVE service to Madrid and the reopening of the bypass, the A-7 ring road through which an average of 100,000 vehicles pass every day, also represent milestones in terms of engineering, not only because of the complexity of the projects themselves, but also because of the speed of their execution.
The Minister in charge of Transport, Óscar Puente, accustomed to hand-to-hand combat in daily political conflicts, has developed in this case a managerial profile that has earned him recognition even from the media and conservative politicians, for the efficiency with which he projected on his social networks in the recovery of infrastructures.
In the case of the A7, the general director of national roads, Juan Pedro Palomino, explains how it was possible to put in place a temporary alternative to reopen the road in 13 days. bypasswhose bridge over the Poyo ravine was seriously damaged.
According to Palomino, on the fateful night of October 29, the collapse of the bridge structure had already been detected in Quart de Poblet, shortly before the connection with the A-3: “We started to think and at the end of The next Today we already knew what the interim solution would be to reopen the A7 as quickly as possible, which ultimately consisted of enabling a new 550 meter long platform with six traffic lanes (three in each direction) parallel to the damaged track. bridge, that is to say a bypass of the bypass“.
The general director comments that to carry out the work, “around a hundred people worked 13 days in a row, 24 hours a day, in three shifts, and more than a hundred trucks were moved, three bulldozers and many other excavators. Furthermore, “for the construction of the structure, 250 prefabricated concrete frames were assembled during a very complex logistical operation, since they all had to be put in place in a day and a half.” On this esplanade made possible by the frames, 1,350 tonnes of concrete, 8,500 tonnes of chipboard for the sidewalk and 120,000 tonnes of filling materials were placed.
“It was quite a challenge to find the technical solution in 24 hours, to guarantee that all the logistics arrived taking into account the situation of road collapse and for the coordination that the whole operation required at the level of the human resources and machines”, says Palomino, who recalls that the platform is “provisional” until the definitive repair of the bridge is carried out. For this reason, “in this section the speed is limited to 60 kilometers per hour and in case of rain it has the capacity to drain 550 cubic meters per second.”
During the last DANA, 2,800 cubic meters fell per second, which is why the bridge collapsed: “The final project will be able to take a similar route without any problem,” he says. The total planned investment, both for the provisional and final project, amounts to 12.5 million euros.
Rail reopening
Renfe has restored all high-speed services on the Madrid-València line after the second DANA last Wednesday, November 13, which gave rise to the red alert issued on Wednesday by Aemet, and postponed to Thursday, November 14 from 12:00 p.m. Cercanías services in the center of València, as well as their alternative plans.
Concerns related to the Aemet red alert and the intense rains in the Valencian Community have forced the railway company to take the decision not to restore AVE and Avlo services in the Community once the works of the Adif which have affected it kept suspended after the previous DANA.
Thus, on Thursday November 14, the first AVE left Madrid for Valencia at 11:30 a.m. and from Valencia, the first AVE left for Madrid at 12:21 p.m.
On the Madrid-Valencia line, Renfe’s high-speed service (AVE+Avlo) is, from Monday to Friday, 30 trains per day, 15 in each direction. The offer for the weekend is 49 trains, on Saturday 12 trains run to Valencia and 11 services to Madrid, and on Sunday 13 trains run in each direction between the two cities.
Commuter Services
From 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 14 and throughout the day, Cercanías services in central València have been rescheduled, as well as their alternative plans. Service has been partially reduced on lines C1, C2 and C6, as well as associated road transport service on lines C1 and C2.
For lines C1, C2 and C6, a service is established every hour in each direction for both rail services and their alternative plans (lines C1 and C2).
The C3 València-Buñol-Utiel line maintains the established alternative transport plan. Buses will not stop at Cheste and Loriguilla stations due to the state of the infrastructure.
The services of the C5 València Nord-Caudiel line, during the day this Friday, will have the same circulations as on the weekend, so six trains will run instead of the eight that run during the week.
In the associated road bus services, a service in each direction has been established every hour for the routes Benifaió-València, Algemesí-València, Carcaixent-Alzira-València and Silla-Catarroja-Massanassa-Alfafar-València.
In addition, the usual service is established for the lines Utiel-S.Antonio-Requena-El Rebollar-Siete Aguas-Buñol-Valencia and Buñol-Chiva-Aldaia-Xirivella-València.
All bus services associated with Cercanías services have their headquarters established in Valencia, at the Joaquín Sorolla station, with the exception of those corresponding to the Utiel and Buñol lines, which will be located in the Plaza de España.
Long distance Valencia-Barcelona
Likewise, long-distance services between Valencia and Barcelona have been restored. The first Euromed left Barcelona at 10:15 a.m. and Valencia at 11:25 a.m.
Due to unfavorable weather conditions and the red alert issued by the National Meteorological Agency (Aemet), rail traffic between Barcelona and Valencia has been suspended in recent days, both on long and medium distance and regional lines.
Regional Express services to and from Tarragona-Tortosa-Camp de Tarragona and Valencia have also been suspended, as has the circulation of Intercity and Euromed services to and from Figueres-Barcelona Sants and Valencia.
