THE SPANISH Ministry of Development has awarded a consortium of Copasa and Corsan-Corviam Construcción SA a €28·4m contract to build a new double-track alignment 4·3 km in length between Ordes and Queixas on the Santiago de Compostela - A Coruña route.
Expected to take 22 months to complete, the new alignment will be designed for maximum speeds above 200 km/h, with rail laid on sleepers enabling conversion to 1435mm gauge at a later date.
The ministry expects to let all contracts for works between Santiago and A Coruña by the end of this year, which when completed should enable TRD DMUs to cut the fastest end-to-end journey time from 50min to 20min. By the end of June 27·5 km of new alignment will have been brought into service between Santiago and Ordes.
- The Ministry of Development has been authorised to call tenders for civil works on five sections of the Madrid - Valencia high speed line between Motilla del Palancar and Valencia. These sections total 57·6 km in length and have been allocated a combined construction budget of €703·3m.
