Additional contract for the undergrounding of the railway …
of Eleni Botas
The project of undergrounding the railway in Sepolia, the so-called “Sepolia Railway Tunnel”, carried out by Intrakat, is heading towards a new supplementary contract.
According to information, the supplementary contract that will cover the needs created due to the delay caused by the modification of the initial approval of the environmental conditions, has already been given the green light by the competent community bodies and is going to be voted in Parliament.
This is one of the most important projects being carried out today in Athens, in addition to the construction of a double railway tunnel of 4 lines, the regeneration of the ground space is also foreseen with the creation of an urban linear sports park.
Essentially, this is a project that will change the face of the wider area from Attiki Square to Sepolia as with the construction of the tunnel, the current lines and dangerous level crossings will be turned into green and recreational areas.
Thus, with the undergrounding of this section in the degraded area of Sepolia, the area will stop being divided into two sections (above and below the lines) and in the place of the lines that will be a park, bike paths and a general alteration of the area. It should be noted that this project has been a request of the residents of the area for over a decade.
Today, the construction works of the project are carried out by the consortium night and day on two fronts and two shifts, with the aim of delivering the double line (one in each direction) in 2024.
The Contractor is the Intracat consortium – Railway Works ATE, while the construction duration of the project is set at 52 months, while the total duration of the project (with maintenance) is 88 months.
The cost of the project is 66.58 million euros and includes the construction of a twin tunnel of a four-lane corridor 1.9 km and a project of a total length of 2.36 km that will serve intercity and suburban trains.
The project is funded by the “Connecting Europe Facility” CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) 2014-2020.
It should be noted that, during the construction, it is planned not to stop the operation of the ground lines that currently serve the trains.
With the completion of the western part, the traffic of the trains will be transferred to the two underground lines. The eastern line will then be removed to build the other two underground lines that will complete the project.
It is worth noting that the project requires precision as it passes between the Metro Tunnel and the large sewer of EYDAP.