The technicians are sure that this will not be a Carmel 2

The news revolves around the fires and the heat, which we won't shake off in a few days. While the Generalitat Firefighters continue to give their all, there are still hundreds of people who have experienced and are experiencing hours of anguish. Don't miss this chronicle by Albert Dumenjó and Pere Virgili in La Pobla de Claramunt, where some neighbors told ARA that “the five firefighters slept on the floor of their house in case the fire reignited”. These are days of emergency and discomfort, physical and psychological, and we must face them with the best possible spirit.

As if all this were not enough, the eternal works on line L9 of the Barcelona metro have caused a sinkhole that has led to the evacuation of 93 apartments, affecting several hundred people who could not spend the night in their homes. We immediately thought of the Carmel collapse in January 2005.

And this is where we are in a position to report that the technicians are sure that this will not be a Carmel 2 in any way, that the residents can be calm, and not only those in Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, but also those on Gran Via, or those on Urgell street, where drilling is also taking place, because the construction system from 21 years ago, when the Carmel accident occurred, and the current one are different. Firstly, because now the tunnel is being built at a depth of 40 meters, and the Carmel tunnel was not that deep. And because today the tunnel boring machine, as it makes the hole, is already building the tube that will later become the tunnel. That is, imagine the tunnel boring machine as a train advancing with a drill bit at the front that makes the hole and at the back, while it removes the earth or rock, it simultaneously builds the cavity, placing voussoirs, the parts of the arches, which support the tube from behind, and the subsoil remains solidified. In other words, the tunnel boring machine is the safest system, because in a few days you have the tunnel built and the ground occupied. And this was not the method used in the Carmel.

What could have happened? Well, the tunnel has encountered a fault (an irregular geological structure), and of course, it should have proceeded more slowly. That's why it doesn't have to stop now, the tunnel boring machine (which is no longer under the affected houses, because it has already passed). What is most certain is that the tunnel boring machine will continue to advance, because it guarantees that the section will be covered in a couple or three days, just as it was: where there was once earth or rock, you now have a concrete tunnel. Sources close to the project believe that the houses no longer need to be moved, and that the residents will not be long in returning, but logically, until the geologists' measurements show zero movement, they will not be allowed to return.

Now, all this does not mean that a sinkhole eight meters in diameter and four meters deep, caused by public works that forced the evacuation of 93 apartments, is not a disaster and does not warrant a full crisis follow-up, among other things because the L9 will be completed in 2031 and already has a scandalous cost overrun of 6 billion euros. On this page you will find all the details of a line that is to run from Santa Coloma de Gramenet to El Prat airport and which has already become the never-ending story. And when it is finished, will it be safe? The L9 line is forty meters deep and no one will hear it when the trains pass. Not far from the area, the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat run towards Tibidabo, and that line runs almost on the surface, and nothing happens.

Good morning.