By Lynda Myer
Spain’s Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda (Mitma) has granted a €540.4m contract to a JV of Comsa, FCC, and Ferrovial for undertaking civil works to place underground the section of the Barcelona – Portbou central line passing via the center of Montcada i Reixac on the northern outskirts of Barcelona.
The work will comprise a 4km tunnel construction that will eradicate two level crossings over a busy section of the railway and allow the widening of the line from two to three tracks. In addition, a new underground station will be constructed for Montcada i Reixac.
The contract was tendered again with a budget of €621m following a successful legal challenge to the terms of the original tender. Mitma claims that despite the winning grouping of Comsa, FCC, and Ferrovial, bids were received from three other joint ventures as well as:
- Dragados, Tecsa, ACSA, San José
- OHLA, Sacyr, Acciona, Rubau, and
- Vías y Construcciones, Copisa, Azvi, Ingeniería y Servicios.
While evaluating, the bid from Comsa, FCC, and Ferrovial acquired the best technical and financial scores after finding that the prices of two of the other bids were “unreasonably low,” Mitma declares.
Subsequently, Adif requested these two bidders to justify their prices; their responses were investigated by both Adif and Geocontrol, an independent consultant, but were not taken by Adif’s technical staff nor the committee responsible for granting the contract.
Montcada i Reixac is operated by line R2 of Renfe’s Barcelona suburban network, plus regional route R11 to Portbou on the French border. Moreover, Mitma states that the project here is one of the most enterprising within its Barcelona suburban investment schedule.
The new underground alignment is organized for a maximum speed of 140km/h and with maximum gradients of 3%. The new station will have two side platforms, with the third central track utilized by regional services not stopping at Montcada i Reixac.
Individually, through Adif, Mitma has granted a €30.2m contract to remodel Montcada Bifurcació station on lines R3, R4, and R7 of the Barcelona suburban network.
The work involving the three 200m-long platforms construction and lengthening two passing loops to 800m will be done by a JV of Dragados and Tecsa.
