As of the closing of this issue, we are immersed in the greatest health crisis in recent history. An unprecedented event that is forcing us to adapt, change how we work and bring out the best in ourselves. I want to express my solidarity and appreciation to everyone with the firm conviction that together, we will overcome it.

Nevertheless, our dedication and commitment to the improvement of mobility and safety of infrastructure, spurs us on to continue carrying out our activity. One example of this is the comprehensive renovation of the Recoletos tunnel, which traverses Madrid from north to south and is a key element in improving the comfort and safety of this infrastructure, which carries the most rail traffic of the entire Spanish network. Designed and managed by Ineco on behalf of Adif, our technicians have played a crucial role in tackling one of the most important railway mobility projects in little more than five months, given that several commuter lines run through this tunnel, serving more than 250 million passengers a year.

Knowledge and input for improving urban mobility and promoting its sustainable development were combined at the recent World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi. With the objective of facing the future with more sustainable and inclusive transportation, the companies of the Group of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda presented their innovative projects at this international meeting convened by UN-Habitat.

Our dedication to improving the safety of transport and mobility has led us to participate in important studies and projects with major social benefits

Experience in the modernisation of railway lines, and in particular in the development and deployment of the ERTMS system, together with more than 14 years of collaboration in European innovation projects, led to Ineco’s participation in ERSAT GGC, an ambitious project financed by the European Satellite Navigation Agency which will make it possible to implement satellite technology in the European rail traffic management system ERTMS by means of virtual balises.

This same dedication to innovation to improve air and land safety is also behind the efforts by our experts to develop the ‘Factor Humano’ methodology, which has received several different awards, including the Canso ‘Global Safety Achievement Award 2019’.

Ineco’s international activity also prompted its involvement in the supervision of new trains for Quito’s first metro, and in the aeronautical field, to the design of the Master Plans for 12 airports of the Pacific Airport Group, a client to whom we are grateful for the comments made by its Network and Regulated Business Director, Jose Ángel Martínez.

As for Spain, in this issue we cover two road projects recently opened by the Ministry of Transport, which will reduce travel times and increase safety levels: the complex stretch of the A-23 highway as it passes through the Monrepós mountain pass, and the new Gaznata bridge over the Burguillo reservoir in Ávila.

Lastly, we highlight the launch of Ineco’s new Equality Plan, which includes important initiatives aimed at achieving real and effective equality, and which will have a Monitoring Committee to measure its degree of implementation and impact.

The Ministry of Public Works opened the Huesca A-23 (E-07 for Europe) stretch of the Mudéjar highway in October 2019. Ineco provided technical assistance and supervised the project’s environmental monitoring programme. Thanks to this and other works, the full length of the Monrepós mountain pass can now be traversed on a highway, reducing travel times and increasing safety levels.

Construction of the A-23 to connect the Mediterranean coast to the French border began in 1999. The road starts in Sagunto, Valencia, and runs for 435 kilometres (413 of which are now in service), to Jaca in Huesca. Partially new construction and also taking advantage of the existing alignment, the A-23 follows the corridors cut by the N-234 (to Retascón, Zaragoza) and the N-330, which crosses Aragón and connects to the Somport tunnel (Huesca) to pass through the Pyrenees.

ARGUIS INTERCHANGE. The section includes the Arguis trumpet interchange, which provides access to the new Monrepós Tunnel Control Centre, the town of Arguis and the Nocito Valley located within the Parque Natural de la Sierra y los Cañones de Guara.

In the year 2000, the A-23 was extended to the capital of Huesca. Due to the challenging geology of the terrain and, in particular, the Monrepós mountain pass which, at 1,262 metres above sea level is the highest in the Huesca Pyrenees, the final stretch to Jaca was the last to be completed. For this stretch, in 2019, the Ministry of Public Works in conjunction with the Aragón State Highways Division, opened three new sections of road, which means it is now possible to travel the entire 39-kilometre stretch between Huesca and the Monrepós pass on a highway.

The sections in service are: Alto de Monrepós-Caldearenas, Caldearenas-Lanave, and also, since October 2019, the 3.3 kilometres between Congosto de Isuel and Arguis. The contract to build this last section was awarded to FCC, and work began in May 2007. Since April 2016, Ineco has been providing technical assistance to FCC’s construction management team, for the supervision and monitoring of the works. The works posed considerable technical difficulties for several reasons, not the least of which was the geotechnical complexity of the geography, which, among other things, gives the entire route a downward gradient of between 4% and 7%.

Now that the new sections of the A-23 are operational, only the 30.4 kilometres of the Lanave-Sabiñánigo section and the Sabiñánigo and Jaca bypasses remain uncompleted. The Ministry of Public Works has stressed the significance of the new road axis which, together with the A-21 (Pamplona-Jaca) and A-22 (Huesca-Lleida) highways, gives traffic travelling between the Cantabrian coast and Catalonia an alternative to the Ebro valley. When the work is finished, the travel time between Castellón and the Atlantic coast will be about six hours.

The new section of the Congosto de Isuela-Arguis highway was constructed with new infrastructure, including a tunnel more than 900 metres long on the ascending carriageway (direction Huesca-Jaca). However, whenever possible, the descent takes advantage of the existing corridor (the N-330). The cross-section of the highway consists of two carriageways with two 3.5-metre lanes, separated by a narrow median strip measuring between 1.2 and 2 metres in the sections with parallel carriageways, a 1-metre inner hard-shoulder, a 2.5-metre outer hard-shoulder, and 0.75-metre lateral berms.

Viaducts and other structures 

The difficult alignment required the construction of numerous structures: six viaducts, two walkways, a reinforced concrete wall and six reinforced soil walls.

In addition, three bridges of the N-330 built over the Isuela River in 1982 were repaired and adapted. They showed a significant degree of deterioration due to several different causes, but mainly due to a combination of poor drainage and exposure to salt used as a melting agent.

Embankment reinforcement

Another notable aspect of the new section’s construction was the reinforcement of slopes and embankments with stability issues resulting in fractures and frequent occurrences of falling debris (stones and metre-sized blocks). The problem was addressed with more than 60,500 m² of triple-twisted wire mesh netting anchored with bolts and Californian drains (drainage pipes inserted into the rock). Additionally, the project required more than 7,600 metres of soil walls, the reinforcement of unstable soil with a total of 53 buttresses formed by 265 piles, and static and dynamic barriers three and four metres high, respectively.

The new road axis, together with the A-21 (Pamplona-Jaca) and A-22 (Huesca-Lleida) highways, gives traffic travelling between the Cantabrian coast and Catalonia an alternative to the Ebro valley

Double drainage system

In sections where the highway runs almost parallel to the Isuela river, the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) dictated that waters should be handled differently depending on their origin. For this reason, a double longitudinal drainage system was installed. Clean run-off from the embankments is diverted into a ditch in a clearing and drains directly into the river; dirty water that accumulates on the carriageway flows into a curb collector, central ditch and lateral gutter between the roads, with degreasing and settling tanks to prevent pollutants from reaching the river.