Ministry of Public Works, Generalitat, ADIF, State Ports, FGC and Port of Barcelona move to build new road and rail accesses to the port

The Ministry of Public Works, the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government), ADIF, State Ports and the Port of Barcelona have today signed a cooperation Protocol that opens the way to building the new southern road and rail accesses to the port precinct. The Protocol concerns the building plan established in the Information Study approved on 22 October 2007. The event was attended by José Luis Ábalos, Minister of Public Works; Pedro Saura, Secretary of State for Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda; Isabel Pardo, president of Spanish rail infrastructure operator ADIF; Álvaro Rodríguez Dapena, director of Planning and Development of State Ports; Damià Calvet, Catalan Regional Minister for Territory and Sustainability; Mercè Conesa, Port of Barcelona President, and Ricard Font, president of Catalan rail operator FGC.

With the Protocol now signed, work will commence in the coming months on the prior studies and basic project necessary to sign the required legal instruments or agreements to begin construction. These legal instruments or agreements will cover the allocation of ownership and the financial obligations and contributions of each of the entities and bodies participating in the development and construction of these new accesses, and the planning of new intermodal terminals and rolling highway services in the Barcelona logistics node.

The Protocol signed today replaces the “Cooperation Protocol for promoting and building the new railway access to the South of the Port of Barcelona”, signed on 4 September 2013 between the Ministry of Public Works, the Generalitat de Catalunya, ADIF , FGC, Port of Barcelona and State Ports. A subsequent agreement will be drafted in accordance with the technical, economic and administrative framework for the new accesses project to be built according to the solution covered in the Information Study approved on 22 October 2007.

During the event, the President of the Port of Barcelona stated: “In addition to this Protocol, we are bringing 750-metre trains on stream on the Barcelona-Zaragoza line, strengthening our commitment to clean, green, efficient, regular and safe logistics, aligning our investments with the European Green Deal, as is only to be expected”.

Mercè Conesa also pointed out that “From the Port of Barcelona we had requested a Technical Office headquartered in Barcelona, to effectively build the accesses and to coordinate the whole project, which I formally request once again at this event. We are asking to participate in coordinating the work because it is extremely complex and because our teams know our port better than anyone”.

The studies and projects that will now be drafted to develop the new accesses to the Port of Barcelona will include three key actions:
We will also study the possibility of building a complete road link in the intermediate zone of the old final section of the Llobregat river, to accommodate HGV traffic departing from or arriving at the adjacent port-logistics complex.
The new road and rail accesses to the Port of Barcelona pose a considerable technical challenge since they must be built in a small, highly developed area that is shared with key metropolitan infrastructures and service networks, occasionally resulting in 4-level infrastructures (metro, new railway access, FGC tracks and new road access). The poor terrain poses a significant additional challenge.
Monitoring Committee

• Exclusive railway access to the port, consisting of a double section of mixed (Iberian and standard gauge) track running from a fork in the current RFIG south of the Bellvitge junction, to the starting point of the receipt and dispatch sidings at the Nou Llobregat depot, an infrastructure that will be built by the Port of Barcelona outside the scope of this Protocol. This access includes the electrification, control-command and signalling installations of this section.
• Connection branch line of the new railway access with Can Tunis Oest in mixed (Iberian and standard) gauge and adapting the tracks of this terminal to standard gauge. This action includes the corresponding electrification, control-command and signalling installations. Adapting the tracks of this terminal will allow standard gauge trains to run between the current south access (through street 4) and the north access through this terminal.
• Road access from the coastal ringroad (B-10), about 800 metres from the Cornellà junction to the distribution junction at the port entrance, known as Nus Nord.

  In addition to these actions, control-command, signalling and energy subsystems facilities will be designed, including the traction substation, corresponding to the railway infrastructures to be built by the Port of Barcelona in its current service area, and are called Nou Llobregat and ZAL-Prat respectively in the information study. These facilities are to be designed in conjunction with the railway sections included in the actions of this Protocol.

Within one month from today, the Ministry of Public Works, the Directorate-General of Roads, ADIF, State Ports, the Port of Barcelona, Generalitat de Catalunya and FGC will all have to appoint their respective representatives to a Monitoring Committee to be set up to monitor the progress of the projects.

The prior studies for the new road and rail accesses to the Port of Barcelona that will now begin to be drafted, and which could be approved within nine months, will establish the scope and content of the basic project, as well as the terms for drafting. The basic project will include a detailed proposal of construction projects to be executed by the signatories to ensure that they are compatible and guarantee that they will be coordinated. 

Barcelona logistics node

The Protocol signed today also reflects the will to perform the studies required to implement the joint planning and management of the railway terminals of the Barcelona logistics node − El Vallés Intermodal and logistics terminal (La Llagosta); El Prat Intermodal and logistics terminal (Can Tunis-ZAL Prat); dedicated rolling highway services terminal, thus agreeing on a participation and management model, with an overall perspective for action of the current and future intermodal terminals located in the Barcelona area.

The aims would include developing the logistics potential of the Barcelona node to strengthen its role as a link bringing together goods, resources and logistical developments; improving the competitiveness of this node at national, European and international level; improving rail connections for freight transport; offering an effective dialogue in logistics with the different players in the chain; helping to establish efficient rail freight services in the main European corridors and acting as a one-stop shop for all companies interested in using and operating these services, inter alia.

The construction of the new land, road and rail accesses to the Port of Barcelona is part of the Ministry of Public Works' strategy for sustainable, safe and connected mobility, committed to modernising the transport and logistics system. Their significance explains why the new South road and rail accesses to the Port of Barcelona are a priority action, the culmination of a development that began in 1994 with the Delta Plan, to make Barcelona the most advanced logistics and multimodal node in Southern Europe.