The summer of the sinkholes

Alongside fires and heatwaves, this is also proving to be the summer of transport construction incidents: in a short time, we've had two sinkholes and an explosion. If winter was marked by the tragic accidents in Gelida and Adamuz, now, fortunately so far without loss of human life, we are suffering surprising ground collapses in major public works. What is happening to us?

Calculation errors in projects? Execution errors? Pressure to go too fast? A chain of subcontracting of work? These are all hypotheses. There are few certainties. What is clear, however, is that something is going wrong, and that responsibilities must be investigated and guarantees provided that this chain of blunders will be stopped. It is not at all normal – or it shouldn't be – for such conspicuous failures to occur in works of this magnitude, errors that could have been much more lethal.

In just a few days, we have seen two grotesque images. The most recent, on the R2 line, between Barcelona and Montcada i Reixac, where suddenly a large void appeared, causing the earth to swallow a crane downwards. An entire crane! Fortunately, no workers were involved at that moment. If it had happened in another time slot, we would be talking in more tragic terms. It ended up being a scare.

The solution has been to fill the immense hole with concrete and bury the crane itself in it. But as of now, there is still no convincing technical explanation for what may have happened. Something that, of course, is not at all reassuring. Furthermore, at the very beginning of the holidays, the impact on Catalan rail transport could be very damaging for users: it is suggested that the restoration of service will take a week or more, with the connection to the airport and to northern Catalonia interrupted. On an already sufficiently strained train service, the situation is as serious as it is desperate.

We were also coming from another grotesque sinkhole a few days ago. In the works of metro line L9, in the Barcelona neighborhood of Putxet, again a part of the ground gave way, and some homes were affected: the image that remains is that of the literal disappearance of a restaurant's toilet, swallowed by the ground. Some residents have still not been able to return to their homes.

But this very Wednesday night another incident occurred around construction work on the metro, in this case in Plaça de Sants, where by accident – we will have to see if there was negligence – a gas pipe was affected and, ultimately, by another accident – here too we will have to clarify who is responsible – a large flare-up occurred for hours. How is it possible that, with gas escaping from the pipe, a worker was using an angle grinder? Inexperience? Lack of controls? Precarious working conditions? Lack of common sense?

Precisely the feeling of lack of control is palpable. In the case of the R2 tunnel, Adif's attempt to delay the news – it took hours to make the facts known – is unacceptable. Everything suggests they played with time to try to hide or minimize the matter. Companies, administrations, and technicians involved must provide answers to the accumulating questions. Security guarantees are needed.