Infrastructure

Soller Tunnel evacuation tunnel will cost 25 million

Mercedes Garrido of the Council of Majorca presenting the plan for the evacuation tunnel. | @ConsellMca

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma03/02/2019 07:45

The Council of Majorca has presented the general plan for an evacuation tunnel that will run parallel to the Soller Tunnel and and for which there will be nine emergency exits.

The presentation was led on Friday by the Council's president, Miquel Ensenyat, who said that the project will cost around 25 million euros. At present, the Council doesn't know who will pay for it, though the intention is - where the Council is concerned - that it should be the national ministry of development. "It will accept the cost within the framework of the agreement for roads investment," he suggested. Mercedes Garrido, the councillor for infrastructure, added that the ministry "has not raised any problem" about this.

There is no schedule for when the tunnel might be built. "No one expects this to be within a couple of months or a couple of years. It is not imminent," Garrido noted.

The evacuation tunnel will be three kilometres long and there will be exits every 300 metres. It will be suitable for emergency vehicles, such as fire engines.

Garrido, saying once more that the Soller Tunnel is the most dangerous tunnel in Europe and that it does not have emergency escape, explained that there has been a requirement for evacuation since 2006.