My first several weeks as president of Ineco have given me a first-hand look at the excellent work of a team that stands above the rest. A team with a long history –this year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the company– but above all, with enormous talent to continue designing the future.

Our condition as a public engineering firm drives us to continue contributing actively to the development of Spain’s infrastructure, and area where we will continue to focus a large part of our technical potential through the professionals who form part of Ineco, exporting the broad knowledge acquired in Spain to other parts of the world.

In this sense, within Spain, we continue to work with our shareholders on a very wide variety of projects throughout our country. This issue of ITRANSPORTE covers several examples, including the complex project to resolve the Bergara Junction in the ‘Basque Y’ and the comprehensive modernization of the railway line between Palencia and Santander.

The team of professionals who form part of the Ineco has enormous talent to continue designing the future

In parallel, Ineco’s participation in large-scale engineering projects around the world, such as the Makkah-Madinah high-speed line, which at the close of this issue is already a reality that is underway, or the recommendations for the design of a new model of railway management in Malaysia, continue to highlight Ineco’s position as a leader outside of our borders.

It is also important to emphasize our contribution in the development of new projects aimed at implementing efficiency, safety and digitization in transport systems. The designing of equipment that recovers and returns the surplus energy generated by train braking to the grid, wildlife control plans at airports, and the implementation of the Digital Transformation Plan 2018-2020, are clear examples of this.

This is a key project and the most complex one that Adif Alta Velocidad faces in the entire ‘Basque Y’ network, with Ineco carrying out the construction projects in collaboration with Basque railway company ETS. The result is a set of optimised projects in which the layout design of this network of railway tunnels was finally resolved with the decision to divide it into three sectors instead of the initial four.

UDALAITZ TUNNEL. Part of the geomechanical profile of the Udalaitz Tunnel (Sector 2).

The Ministry of Public Works plans to complete this high-speed line, which connects the centre and southeast of the Iberian Peninsula via Madrid to the Basque Country and France, in 2023. Last July, the contract was awarded for the last of the three stretches that make up the Bergara junction, which covers 21.2 kilometres and is dominated by tunnels and viaducts where the three branches that link the cities of Vitoria, Bilbao and San Sebastián meet. In total, 14.8 kilometres of single-track and 3.6 kilometres of double-track tunnel have been designed. The tunnels will be excavated using conventional methods with four points of attack.

The Bergara Junction, with construction projects prepared by Ineco, is the most complex project that Adif Alta Velocidad must undertake in the entire ‘Basque Y’ network

All of the sectors have been designed for mixed traffic, with a maximum speed of 220 km/h and minimum speed of 90 km/h. To allow the tunnels to operate, each one has been designed with an independent drainage system for the collection of hazardous substances and contaminants. The project also includes all of the necessary safety measures, including 22 evacuation galleries between tunnels, as well as walls, drains, environmental integration, areas for ancillary facilities, repositioning of rights of way and affected services, inert waste dump and any other actions necessary for execution. After the works have been completed, the land will be restored to its original state.

‘BASQUE Y’ HIGH SPEED. Platform construction project. / PLAN_INECO

The project is co-financed by the Connect Europe Facility (CEF) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The drafting of the projects involved optimisation of previous construction projects:

• Shorter timescales.
• Improved tunnel design in complex geological areas.
• Improved instrumentation measurements for the monitoring of works.
• Landfill management.
• Adaptation of designs to environmental protection requirements.
• Tightened budgets.

CRUCIAL CONNECTION FOR THE ‘BASQUE Y’

The Bergara interchanges connects the three ‘arms’ of the ‘Basque Y’, with 50% running through tunnels, 10% on viaducts, and the remaining 20% above ground.

MAP_BASQUE GOVERMENT

The viaduct and the European mink

The Kortazar viaduct, located in sector 3, consists of a continuous beam deck made from pre-stressed concrete and embedded into two V-shaped piles that act as fixed points. The project is the result of a study of several configurations that needed to take into account the impact of the central piles on both the N-636 road below and the habitat of a colony of European mink. In the image, the longitudinal cross-section of the Kortazar viaduct.

We begin by marking an historic anniversary: 50 years since the founding of Ineco (1968-2018), half a century during which we are proud to have had the opportunity to contribute to the structuring of the country through our involvement in the design and construction of major road and rail routes, port and airport development, urban transport and intermodal transport in Spain as a whole. It has unquestionably been a decisive period for the history of Spain and its infrastructure, and also for our growth and consolidation as a high-performance, flexible and technologically advanced public works engineering firm, which enables us to act as a trusted consultant in the eyes of our shareholders and as a valuable partner in the foreign market.

In addition to this celebration, I would also like to add the positive close to the year, promising portfolio prospects and our eager anticipation to support two of the Ministry of Public Works’ major projects this year, namely the Innovation Plan and the Internationalisation Plan, programmes that will begin in February and will certainly provide a great boost to our technological and innovative capacity and open up new opportunities for collaboration with Spanish partners in order to continue with our expansion abroad. Both initiatives have enabled us to join forces and work together with other companies and institutions in the Public Works Group, and they will also soon be joined by the Sustainability Plan.

The 50 years since the founding of Ineco have unquestionably been a decisive period for the history of Spain and its infrastructure

As unity makes strength, this issue also celebrates the connection of the high-speed lines in the north of Spain with those in the south and east, our work with Acciona to improve Costa Rica’s infrastructure and the joint effort of all of Europe to give a final push for the implementation of BIM.

We thank Tomás Elejalde, general manager of Metro de Medellín, for giving us a full interview. And lastly, I would like to mention the exemplary efforts of our technical staff to make the advancement of high-speed rail a reality, as our readers will be able to see in the reports on the Central High-Speed Line in Madrid, the extension of the Basque Y in Guipúzcoa and the traffic control works on the line between Makkah and Madinah, a project that has successfully passed the first test of the entire 450 kilometres.

The works to install a third rail on the Astigarraga-Irún stretch in Guipúzcoa will make it possible to extend the ‘Basque Y’ –the future high-speed line between Vitoria, Bilbao and San Sebastián– to the French border via the Madrid-Hendaya national gauge line.

The Basque Regional government and the Ministry of Public Works, through the Monitoring and Coordination Commission for the Construction of the New Railway Network in the Basque Country, agreed to accelerate the entry into service of the different stretches that make up this network in the area around San Sebastián. With this objective, at the end of 2011, it was decided to install a third rail on the national-gauge line between Astigarraga and Irún to enable high-speed trains to use the new infrastructure, make commercial stops in the centre of San Sebastián, at Atocha station and continue on to Irún and France without the need to perform reversing or gauge-switching manoeuvres.

The works executed by Adif, in which Ineco is participating, include actions on the infrastructure, track, catenary and safety systems along the 20-kilometre route, with the adaptation of tunnels, metal bridges, stations and stops for mixed traffic situations taking on special significance.

The works executed by ADIF and Ineco include actions on the infrastructure, track, catenary and safety systems

Excavation without disrupting rail traffic

The installation of a third rail in a conventional, so-called ‘old’, network with a completely urban track layout is a complex task that encompasses all of the structural and technical aspects of the railway line. The most challenging action though is undoubtedly that of enlarging the three tunnels on the Astigarraga-Irún stretch (Gaintxurizqueta, Loyola and Capuchinos) in order to comply with the values established in the Railway Gauge Instruction. The return to rail freight transport involves the use of intermodal transportation and the need for increasingly wider gauges on infrastructures that date back to the nineteenth century. Although these have been adapted over time, a major overhaul is now necessary in order to meet the new requirements. This represents a widespread problem for railway networks that must be addressed. In order to minimize disruption of rail services, Ineco has used a new construction system that has been implemented over recent years in Europe and introduced it in Spain. It involves making tunnel widening, excavation and new support placement work compatible with the passing of trains over an interior central track. This also has the added complexity of allowing trains to run on an electrified track.

Some of the 17 technicians in front of the 535.5 metre Gaintxurizketa tunnel.

To this end, Ineco technicians from all specialisations have designed a provisional arrangement that makes the widening machine compatible with the 3,000 V overhead lines.

The development of a prototype for Spain

The German firm Herrenknecht, a company with extensive international experience in the development of tunnel boring machines, has been in charge of adapting and developing its prototype to the current needs of the tunnels on the Astigarraga-Irún line.

Model TES D-835 consists of 4 modules, each with a different function (shield, excavation and shotcrete, pipe umbrella drilling and auxiliary facilities) that are assembled together. This model was designed to allow it to be used in other geological areas and to widen tunnels up to 2 metres.

The progress of the ‘Basque Y’

The infrastructure of the high-speed rail connection that will link the three provincial capitals of Euskadi with France and the rest of the Iberian Peninsula is currently being executed.

The ‘Basque Y’ is a 180.5 kilometre railway line –not including access routes to cities– which will connect the capitals of the three provinces of the Basque Region, Vitoria (Álava), San Sebastián (Guipúzcoa) and Bilbao (Vizcaya), by means of a high-speed network. It connects with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula and France, via Pamplona, through the Navarre Corridor and allows the Madrid-Valladolid-Vitoria line to be extended to the French border.

This line consists of two different branches: Vitoria-Bilbao, 90.8 kilometres, and Bergara-San Sebastián-French border, 89.7 kilometres. It will have six stations: Astigarraga, Bilbao-Abando, Vitoria, Irún, San Sebastián-Norte and Ezkio-Itsaso. The mountainous geography of the region has required the construction of 44 viaducts and 23 tunnels.

The Minister’s tweet

The minister of Public Works, Iñigo de la Serna, on his first visit in February 2017, oversaw the start of these works, which will cost more than 160 million euros, including construction and supplies. Several months later, in September, he inspected the operation of the construction system and the possibilities it offers for adapting the network to the new needs of rolling highways.