The L9 tunnel boring machine will drill again in the fall.

BarcelonaAfter a year of shutdown due to wear on the cutting wheel, the tunnel boring machine on Barcelona Metro's Line 9 received a new part this afternoon, enabling it to continue working. Technicians have already begun lowering all the parts into the shaft on Mandri Street to assemble the front part of the cutting wheel, and the Regional Minister for Territorial Operations, Silvia Paneque, explained that, once ready, the machine will be put back into operation in early autumn.

The goal is to complete the missing tunnel bore in the central section of Line 9 (which will also serve Line 10) that runs through Barcelona, ​​thus connecting the two ends of the line. The tunnel comprises 1.6 kilometers, between the Mandri and Lesseps stations. The Regional Ministry expects the work to take another twelve months.

This new piece, which now needs to be installed (to replace the previous one), is twelve meters in diameter, weighs 210 tons, and has been designed and manufactured with the characteristics of the terrain it must excavate specifically in Barcelona in mind. It arrived yesterday by ship from Italy and was transported at dawn to the attack shaft of the Mandri works, which is seventy meters deep. A heavy-duty crane was used to unload it.

Paneque promised the residents watching the arrival of the pieces that "the result will be worth it." "This shaft, which for years was a symbol of a stalled project, is today an example of how things can change," she asserted. "We have been waiting for that day for a long time," asserted the First Deputy Mayor of Barcelona City Council, Laia Bonet, who emphasized that the construction work on L9 is "one of the most important steps remaining" in mobility in the Catalan capital and its metropolitan area.

Some historical works

Now the new cutting wheel must be mounted on the front of the tunnel boring machine and started to continue drilling the remaining section. When it is finished—in the fall of 2026 if there are no further obstacles—it will have bored the tunnel of the longest line in Europe, connecting the Besòs and Llobregat rivers. The Generalitat also plans that before completing the entire project, the L9 can now open a new four-stop section New lines in 2027.

Currently, lines L9 and L10 have around 27 million users per year, and the Catalan government estimates that, once the central section is completed, passenger numbers will multiply, reaching 113 million. This is a strategic project for the Catalan capital, as it will expand metro coverage and help relieve congestion on the public transport network. The works are valued at more than 900 million euros.