Spain and Morocco plan tunnel link (original) (raw)

Plans for a rail tunnel between Africa and Europe have taken a step forward with the agreement by Spain and Morocco on a programme of engineering tests. Machines could be digging under the Strait of Gibraltar in five years.

The Spanish transport ministry said €27m (£19m) would be invested over the next three years in a geological survey of the rocks between Punta Paloma, on the south-western coast of Spain near Tarifa, and Punta Malabata, near the Moroccan city of Tangier.

A decision whether to start digging will be made in 2008.

The tunnel would be 24 miles long, of which 17 miles would lie under the fast-moving waters of the strait.

Technical studies for three potential routes between the two points suggest that the tunnel could descend to between 100 and 300 metres under the sea.

The sea bed in this part of the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean and the Atlantic meet, lies at about 300 metres at its deepest point.

The route was chosen "because it is the one with the least depth of tunnelling needed", the ministry said.

Experts said a tunnel of fewer than 12 miles would be possible further to the east, but it would mean boring 900 metres below sea level.

The seabed deepened considerably at the shortest point between the two continents, the ministry said.

The proposed tunnel would copy the Channel Tunnel in having two rail tunnels with a service tunnel linking them.

The service tunnel would be built first, and work on it could begin in 2008, the transport ministry said.

"The final route and the depth of the tunnel will depend on the geological studies, which require a series of complex tests," it said.

Relations between Spain and Morocco have begun to thaw after a series of spats, including the armed confrontation last summer after Moroccan forces landed on the tiny Spanish islet of Perejil.

The two countries have continuing disputes about immigration, farming and the sovereignty of two Spanish enclaves on African soil, Ceuta and Melilla.

The agreement to go ahead with detailed engineering studies was signed by ministers from the two countries in Marrakech last week, but the details were not made made public until the weekend.

The tunnel would be shorter than the Channel Tunnel, which stretches for 31 miles. But once completed it could, nevertheless, cause many of the same headaches, especially with the strait being one of the most popular points for illegal migrants trying to enter Europe from Africa.

Security would almost certainly be an issue too, given that Morocco has suffered a series of suicide bombings and 41 people were killed in Casablanca in May.

The two countries first began talking about a tunnel project in the 1980s, and both set up state bodies to help prepare the project.

The Spanish transport ministry said it had already bored an experimental tunnel 560 metres long.

A similar tunnel on the Moroccan side had been sunk to 300 metres.

The longest tunnel currently being planned anywhere in the world is for a 34-mile stretch of the route between Lyon and Turin, which will not be completed until between 2015 and 2020.

There are also proposals for a tunnel to link China and Taiwan, which would stretch at least 78 miles.