Trenet project chugging along

LINE 9’s next big operation has just been given the go-ahead by the Generalitat.

At its last meeting, the Consell, the regional government’s equivalent of a Cabinet, authorised rail operator Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat Valenciana (FGV) to award the contract to modernise the Teulada-Gata de Gorgos section of track.

This has an initial estimate of €18 million and installation must be finished within 12 months.

The work will be complex as the six-kilometre track has to negotiate much of the Garganta de Gata not only via tunnels, but also embankments and cuttings.

All of these must be stabilised and an efficient drainage system installed while rails, sleepers and ballast are all to be renewed.

Work has now finished on the Calpe-Teulada section and FGV is completing the conditions for the contract to modernise the last Gata to Denia stretch of the Line 9.

Tenders will soon be invited for the €18.827 million contract which has a completion deadline of 11.5 months but is technically less difficult than the Calpe-Teulada part of the project, FGV said.