The Diplomat in Spain

The road will include the construction of a tunnel of 1.24 kilometres under the airport’s runway./ Photo: enodius.com

The Diplomat. 21/06/2016

OHL and the Government of Gibraltar reached an agreement according to which the Spanish construction company will resume the works of construction of the new access to the airport of the Rock, which includes the construction of a tunnel to prevent vehicles from crossing in the path. Works, which were paralyzed, should start on 1 August and conclude in November 2018.

According to both parties, the agreement reached allows overcoming the differences showed after the granting of the contract at the end of 2008 to OHL, which detected contamination on the land where it was going to build the tunnel. The Gibraltarian authorities denounced the contract in 2011 and have been litigating with the construction company since then.

They have finally reached an agreement and, in a statement, OHL declared that facing the “new climate of cooperation” between the parties, the construction group has the intention of “focusing its efforts and resources on the conclusion of the project”.

For its part, the Gibraltarian Government also spread an informative statement pointing out its satisfaction with the agreement and declaring that the company will receive 24 million pounds sterling for this construction (including the payments made so far). It also indicates that the original contract established a payment of 30 million pounds sterling to OHL, but the difference of six million will be the compensation for the costs and expenses that the Government of Gibraltar had to take care of since the contract was rescinded.

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The works, which were paralyzed, are expected to be finished by November 2018

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The work will consist of the construction of a road connecting the border control between Gibraltar and Spain with the Devil’s Tower Road. The road will bypass Gibraltar’s airport and will include the construction of a tunnel of 1.24 kilometres under the head of the airport’s runway.

The tunnel will have another one in parallel, for cyclists and pedestrians, and the new road will connect with two other roads, the Eastern Beach Road and the Catalan Road.

The project also includes the construction of a building to host the future centre for the control and operation of the installations of the tunnels, an area of tanks for the storage, loading and unloading of aviation fuel, and a new system of approach to the head of the airport’s runway.