Since last August, more than 20,000 residents of this new construction zone have been able to reach the centre of Madrid in 25 minutes thanks to the new halt, without having to go to the centre of Torrejón de Ardoz. Located in this Madrid municipality of 127,000 inhabitants in the north-east of Madrid, the new station belongs to the C7 commuter line and serves the districts of Soto del Henares, Mancha Amarilla and Zarzuela, a zone near the Hospital of Torrejón and the new Casablanca industrial estate. Ineco has carried out the architectural, structural and installation design, as well as construction management for Adif. It is a modular structure of porticos that eliminates the need for interior pillars (open plan) and can be easily adapted to any type of station. The main building, direction Alcalá de Henares, has a rectangular floor, a foyer with waiting areas, automatic ticket vending machines and six faregates, with the possibility of increasing this number to nine. It also has a space for offices, toilets and utility rooms.

Ineco has carried out the architectural, structural and installation design, as well as construction management for Adif

A modular and extendible design

The halt has two buildings, one for each direction. In the interior, all uses are distributed by independent building volumes (‘building within a building’). The station was designed with a capacity to receive 6,000 passengers a day, although the modular structure facilitates its future expansion.

Golden ratio

The geometry of the buildings is based on the golden ratio of a two-metre square, which forms rectangles of 2.8282 x 2m. When doubled they create a module of 5.6564 x 2m, and from the division of this module come all of the internal distances between porticos and different spaces are created.

A light box

The main building is laid out as a rectangular prism with two façades, which provides a maintenance area between them. While the “skin” tinges the interior-exterior light (‘light box’ effect), the outer layer generates permeability and allows the design to be changed.

Platforms

The platform edges are 1.75 metres from the track centres, with a width of 5 metres and a length of 210 metres, with 6 metre slopes at each end. Thanks to the 80 metres of canopy extending from the buildings, passengers are always sheltered when they access the platforms.

Other stations designed by Ineco

Ineco has extensive experience in drawing up architectural designs, as well as in construction management and technical assistance and the preparation of feasibility studies in different types of stations, both overground and underground.

• In Cercanías (commuter rail) we should highlight, amongst others, projects such as the Miribilla station in Bilbao, built at a depth of 50 metres; the two in the Málaga airport access and a few others in the Valencian town of Alboraya, all of which are also underground, or the modern Cercanías halt of the Manuel-Énova bypass of the high-speed line to Levante.
• With regard to modular stations, in 2009 it developed an innovation project taking a small halt in the north of Madrid, Las Zorreras, as a reference. A similar solution was also planned, the predecessor of that of Soto del Henares, for the Las Margaritas-Universidad station, in Getafe, in the southern zone of Madrid. Abroad, in 2011, eight modern modular stations were designed for the Bogotá Western Corridor in Colombia.
• With regard to the renovation of historical stations, we can highlight the design and construction management of the historic façade of Atocha (2012), that of the full renovation of Aranjuez station (2008) currently underway, or the modernisation works in around twenty Catalan stations (2009).
• As well as architecture projects, we can also highlight other services, such as technical assistance for the work of the new La Sagrera-Meridiana commuter station in Barcelona (2010) or the prior feasibility studies for the Belgrade light rail in Serbia, with 25 stations, 10 of them underground; or for the São Paulo commuter network in Brazil, which included the construction of nine stations and the renovation of 65 others.
• With regard to highspeed stations, Ineco has carried out around twenty projects, both in construction management and in drawing up architectural designs: this is the case for the stations of Puente Genil, Camp and Antequera-Santa Ana (2007), that of Vigo-Guixar or the projects in nine other stations of the Galician Atlantic corridor in 2010 (see article). Ineco has also worked in the construction management to adapt stations in the whole network for high speed: Santa Justa in Seville, Sants in Barcelona, Atocha in Madrid, Toledo, Zaragoza, A Coruña, Santiago and Ourense in Galicia, etc., as well as in that of enlargement of the Atocha railway complex and its new AVE terminal, begun in 2010.

The renovation work is part of the comprehensive restoration project drawn up by Ineco in 2008 which sought to remedy shortcomings while remaining consistent with the historic character of the architecture. These large, riveted iron structures were built as a result of the Industrial Revolution during the 19th century and are epitomised by the Eiffel tower. Spain lagged a bit behind other cities with regard to the use of iron in architecture and engineering as can be seen in countless examples from Paris, London, Amsterdam, Belgium and Germany in addition to Boston and New York in the United States.

With all of this, transport infrastructure in 19th-century Spain such as stations, bridges and viaducts requiring versatility, luminosity, spaciousness and low prices were easily adapted to the engineering of iron which was best received by engineers of that time period as well as by architects. Examples of riveted iron infrastructures in Spain include the Atocha and Delicias railway stations, the Catalonia Railway Museum, the Valencia railway station and the Aranjuez railway station –the main feature of this article. Furthermore, some quite representative buildings include Sabatini’s Royal Firearms Factory in Toledo and the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain, in addition to bridges and viaducts such as the prominent Triana Bridge.

Spanish transport infrastructure in 19th-century such as stations, bridges and viaducts requiring versatility, luminosity, spaciousness and low prices were easily adapted to the engineering of iron

Aranjuez station is one of the most characteristic vestiges of the industrial age of the 19th century. The earliest railway facilities at Aranjuez were built in 1851 for the line connecting Madrid with Alicante, popularly known back then as the ‘Tren de la Fresa’ (The Strawberry Train) and whose name is now in use once again for tourist services. This station also provides service to the C3 Madrid-Aranjuez commuter rail line. It is the second oldest railway line in Spain (the oldest is the Barcelona-Mataró line, 1943) and is one of the monuments of the Royal Sites of Aranjuez, a Unesco World Heritage Landscape Site since 2001. This line originally reached all the way to the Royal Palace. The original station faced towards the palace on grounds of the company’s prestige and the fact that they needed support from the monarchy. Nevertheless, this location caused so many problems affecting train traffic that it became necessary to build a new station with a completely different layout. The platform marquees are living proof of the iron beams and framework –signs of progress from that time period– that were used to construct public buildings such as stations, markets, factories, libraries and bridges.

The technique of riveting

The steel marquees, roofed by fibre cement and fluted glass, were built around 1851 to provide shelter over the station’s three platforms which were later renovated around 1980 in order to adapt them to the trains and general regulations at that time. As can be observed in the images, the marquees suffered from corrosion problems that affected their structural framework, foundation and ornamentation due to an unsatisfactory roof water drainage system, thus causing damage to the suspended wooden ceiling and corroding the metal. Rehabilitation and restoration of these marquees was a year-long, painstaking process that rediscovered the traditional technique of riveting.

Riveting is the process of joining together several metallic pieces (metal sheets and/or profiles) using rivets. Rivets are elements that are similar to screws –but without the thread– consisting of a cylindrical shaft called a shank or the body, and a head normally shaped like a spherical cap, such as the rivets utilised for the marquees at Aranjuez station. These rivets are manufactured from ductile, malleable and durable metals such as copper, aluminium, some alloys and mild steel, such is the case with the rivets presented herein.

Riveting is the process of joining together several metallic pieces using rivets –elements similar to screws but without the thread- consisting of a cylindrical shaft and a head

To join together metal pieces made from steel, rivets are used –also made from steel– whose quality and characteristics can vary. Holes are drilled just once, piercing through two or more pieces, after having assembled, clamped and tightly screwed said pieces together. Once the holes have been drilled, the pieces are separated from each other in order to eliminate metal scrap, remnants and sharp edges from the surface. The diameter of the holes, save for exceptional cases, is made 1 millimetre larger than the diameter of the body of the rivet. Selecting the length of the body of the rivet is very important: after the rivet is placed in a furnace and uniformly heated to a temperature between 950 and 1,050 ºC in order to allow for its moulding, the riveting process is carried out by introducing the heated rivet into the hole on the pieces which are to be joined together. The body of the rivet should be cast and forged in order to form the shop head of the rivet. This piece must completely fill the hole. To form the shop head, either a riveting machine applying uniform compression is utilised, or a pneumatic hammer with a riveting pin or a bucking bar is used, always held steadily in place. These tools –not the direct strike of a hammer– are used to form the rivet’s second head. Both the furnace and the riveting machine need to be located close to the area where the riveting is to take place so as to avoid significant cooling of the rivet before it is set into place. The pieces that are joined together must lie perfectly flush and tight against each other to ensure a union without bending or warping. Afterwards, the rivet is introduced into the pieces that are being joined together, and the body of the rivet is forged. This process is carried out using a pneumatic hammer and a bucking bar on the spherical head of the rivet.