Seville (EFE).- Seville has taken the first step on Monday to make Line 3 of the Metro a reality, with the laying of the first stone of the technical branch of the northern section of an infrastructure that, in the words of the president of the Junta de Andalucía , Juanma Moreno, is “key to the future” of the Andalusian capital.
This act represents the first step for the start-up of the first of the two sections -the north- of Line 3 of the Metro, which will be financed by virtue of the agreement signed by the Government and the Junta de Andalucía for 1,301 million euros – 50 percent each – that will take the metro from the Pino Montano neighborhood to the Prado de San Sebastián, while the Andalusian administration will also take charge of the trains, whose price will amount to about 66 million euros.
The review of the project for the second section -the south-, which will link the Prado de San Sebastián and Bellavista, will take two years to draft, according to the agreement between the administrations.
Metro technical branch
Today, the technical branch that will connect the garages with the first Pino Montano station has been tendered, a work promoted by the Junta with a cost of 6.8 million euros whose execution period is eleven months, the time in which The awarding of the four phases into which the execution of the entire section will be divided should be processed.
The works of the technical branch have been awarded to the joint venture formed by Lantania and DSV Empresa Constructora y Ferroviaria and it crosses the future bed of the Tamarguillo and La Ranilla streams, and in its 650 meters it has a surface junction with the autonomous highway A -8005 projected through a roundabout.
The section will cover a distance of 8.9 kilometers, with an average depth of 12.5 meters below ground level and will have twelve stops: Pino Montano, Los Mares, Los Carteros, Hospital de San Lázaro, Macarena, Ronda de Capuchinos, María Auxiliadora, Puerta de Carmona, Jardines de Murillo and Prado de San Sebastián, whose route will be covered in 18 minutes.
Connection with health centers
The route will also allow the metro to reach four health centers: the San Lázaro Hospital, the Virgen Macarena University Hospital, the Victoria Eugenia Hospital of the Red Cross and the María Auxiliadora Specialty Center, to which will be added, already in the South section, the Virgen del Rocío Hospital and the Valme Hospital.
The studies included in the documentation show that this section covers a population of potential users estimated at around 120,000 people, with an estimated demand of 57,200 daily travelers, which would translate into around 13.3 million travelers per year.
On January 25, and after a year of intense negotiations and several clashes, the agreement was signed between the central government and the Junta de Andalucía for the co-financing of this section, a historic agreement between both administrations, fourteen years after Seville opened its first metro line, in April 2009.
The event this morning was attended, in addition to the Andalusian president, by the mayor of the capital, Antonio Muñoz, and regional government advisers, including the head of Public Works, Marifrán Carazo, as well as senators Juan Espadas and José Luis Sanz, and representatives of various neighborhood groups.
Bet on streamlining future works
In his speech, the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, who has indicated that the Seville metro project “has only just begun”, has hoped that delays will not be repeated as in previous years and that between a line of metro and another do not have to pass 14 years, so it has opted to speed up future works.
He has highlighted the “firmness and loyal collaboration” between the administrations to make this project a reality and that it will be repeated in the rest of the lines, and has assured that the objective is to complete the map of this infrastructure to position Seville as a capital “to the height of a community like Andalusia”.
Juanma Moreno has indicated that Seville is “closer” to a complete “fast and sustainable” transport project to place Seville among the “most advanced and equal” capitals to other European ones and for this he has announced the “continuity” of the table created between the Junta, the central government and the city council to address the infrastructures.
It has promised to work on the “speed up” of the works and especially with regard to the southern section of Line 3 and Line 2 “printing speed” in the subsections.
Financing of redevelopments by the City Council
For his part, the mayor of the capital, Antonio Muñoz, has said that this work is proof that when the general interest is put first and agreements are sought and confrontation is avoided, the result is to carry out the projects, since, Otherwise, “we would all have lost”, mainly the citizens of the neighborhoods.
After assuring that Seville “is in luck” with today’s event, the mayor has advanced that the City Council will assume the financing of the redevelopment of the avenues in which the northern section will pass, something that will represent an “opportunity” for the improvement of the affected neighbourhoods.
The Metro as a “city model”
In the same way, it has offered the Junta de Andalucía the “experience” of the Tussam company so that it forms part of the metro’s operating model when Line 3 becomes a reality, and has concluded by noting that the metro is “a model of city” and this infrastructure is “the one that has claimed” the Sevillian citizenship.
The general secretary of the PSOE and former mayor of Seville, Juan Espadas, has referred to the beginning of these works in statements to journalists, and has expressed his satisfaction that the negotiations between the administrations reached “a good port” after which he has thanked to the Government of Spain that “has become involved again” with the Andalusian capital.
Espadas has pointed out that with this agreement “common sense and reason have prevailed” and has promised to “collaborate and propose” constructive proposals with “deep” infrastructures like this one.
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