The Spanish Study Company for Fixed Communications across the Strait of Gibraltar (SECEGSA), the public company responsible for analyzing the viability of the infrastructure, has received over the last two years 4.76 million euros to “update the technical studies and address the digital transformation of society”, as well as the preliminary project of the tunnel, carried out in 2007. This work is being done in collaboration with the National Society for Studies of the Strait of Gibraltar (SNED) of Morocco.
The tunnel project under the strait was first discussed following a meeting between King Juan Carlos I of Spain and Hassan II of Morocco in 1979, recalls María Julia Bordonado, professor of economics at the ESIC University, withThe Country. The tunnel is expected to be 28 kilometers long and 300 meters deep. A study carried out in 2007 extended the length to 38.5 kilometers, including 27.7 kilometers underwater. Last November, Spain, through SECEGSA, allocated 480,000 euros to rent four seismographs to assess the seismic risk of the area.
Read: The Morocco-Spain tunnel before 2030
All these studies and their associated costs, estimated at around one billion euros (around 5 to 10% of the total budget), aim to guarantee the success of the project, explains Jose Luis Goberna Caride, director of SECEGSA. “The higher the percentage devoted to carrying out these preliminary studies, the lower the differences in the final cost compared to the initial budget and the greater the precision of the execution times in relation to the final duration of the work”. For the moment, the cost and duration of the tunnel have not been specified. According to estimates from the Spanish company, the project would require an investment of 15 billion euros.
As for the duration of the work, it was estimated at around 40 years in 2007. But, given the technical progress made since then, “the execution period could be reduced by half”, thinks Goberna. Beyond the cost and technical complexities, the realization of the project would be slowed down by the United Kingdom. “If we had wanted it, we would have already done it, but there was foreign pressure not to do it,” explains Bordonado, stressing that this country has, in the past, favored trade between Europe and America, rather than with Africa.
