Transport mobilises 930 workers and 319 machines to rebuild València's roads and railways damaged by the DANA

The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has mobilised 930 workers and 319 machines to recover and rebuild the railway and road infrastructures damaged by the devastating rains and floods that inundated the province of Valencia on Tuesday 29 October.

The General Directorate of Roads and Adif teams are working day and night to clear the state roads and railway lines of vehicles, materials and mud, and to begin repair work to restore mobility in the metropolitan area as soon as possible.

All lanes of the V-31, V-30, A-3 and A-7, to the north of the A-3, are now open, after the clearance of 118 km of trunk, service, acceleration and collector roads. Work is continuing on some sections of these roads to remove reeds and debris from the berm and to replace the containment system, signage, and so on.

A total of 42 km of roads, corresponding to the N-330, N-322, N-3 and A-7, south of the A-3, remain closed as emergency reconstruction work is being carried out. The ministry has released the first emergency funds for this work, totalling €25 million.

In addition, 74 km of track on the C6 and C5 have been recovered and the lines are now in service, and 40.5 km of track on the C1, C2 and C3 have been completely cleared, allowing progress to be made in analysing the damage and start work. Progress is likewise being made in repairing the high-speed line around the Chiva tunnel and in cleaning up the Torrent tunnel, which was completely flooded.

In total, 2,000 vehicles have been removed from state infrastructures in the last few days, 1,600 on roads and 400 on local train tracks.

Road works

The General Directorate of Roads has deployed some 500 workers and 212 machines to clean the carts and rebuild the most damaged roads. A total of 300 people and some 100 machines have been assigned to the work of cleaning, removing materials and repairing damage on the V-31, V-30 and A-3 roads, which are already operational, although some collateral work is still being carried out to leave them in perfect condition.

A further 200 people are working on the emergency works on the A-7, the N-330, the N-322 and the N-3, involving the deployment of 112 machines, including lorries.

On the A-7, at Quart de Poblet, work is being carried out to restore the southern by-pass after the viaduct collapsed due to flooding in the Poyo ravine. Once the concreting work has been completed, 250 frames will be put in place to mark the provisional detour which, with speed restrictions, will mean that connection with the A-3 will be recovered, thereby improving metropolitan mobility. The next step will consist of soil spreading and compaction, followed by chipboarding and marking. Once completed, progress will be made on the reconstruction of the viaduct.

The resources mobilised for the restitution of the southern by-pass of the A-7, which has 9 km cut off, are:

• 70 trucks
• 3 bulldozers
• 3 backhoes
• 2 front blades
• 3 cranes
• 4 packer rollers
• 1 concrete pump
• 40 people + one driver for each machine and truck

Work is continuing on the N-330 and N-322 at the various points affected by the devastating rains. Preliminary works have started for the construction of provisional pontoons at kilometres 194 and 236 of the N-330, and for the construction of a definitive pontoon at kilometre 230 of the same road, one of the most damaged, with 20 km cut off.

The resources mobilised for the reconstruction of the N-330 are:

• 12 trucks
• 4 backhoes
• 2 backhoe loaders
• 2 scrapers
• 2 packer rollers
• Some 36 workers in total

Yesterday, Tuesday 5 November, work began to repair the N-3 at Siete Aguas. The road surface is being repaired and drainage works are being carried out to restore the road to perfect condition. The ministry has had difficulties in both accessing this road, which has 11 km cut off, and in detecting the damage, which is why it is the last road to receive attention.

Work is also being carried out on the N-322, with 2 km cut off.

Rail infrastructure works

Adif has deployed 430 workers and 107 machines to carry out the tasks of recovering the Valencian railway network damaged by the DANA. In this first week, Adif teams have operated almost every day in three shifts, totalling around 20,000 hours, to clear the C-1, C-2 and C-3 commuter lines and analyse the damage to start repairs on these lines and the Madrid-Valencia high-speed line.

A total of 74 km of track on the C6 and C5 have been recovered and are now in service, and 40.5 km of track and 9 stations on the C1, C2 and C3 have been fully cleared, allowing progress to be made in analysing the damage and starting work. It should be recalled that a lorry fell on the C6 on the night of Tuesday 29 October and was quickly repaired.

The first technical inspections of the two critical viaducts for the opening of the joint section of the C1 and C2 (Rambla del Poyo) and the C2 in Algemesí (Río Magro) have not detected any serious structural damage. The situation of the Cheste viaduct (C3) is dire. The Alfafar area is now completely clear and new track is being laid today.

The 8.5 km Valencia Silla section (shared section of the C1 and C2) is 100% clear of vehicles and obstacles, and the stations are in better condition than the sections between them, although all the subways are flooded. Alfafar, Massanassa, Catarroja, Albal and Silla stations have no structural damage.

On the 25 km Silla-Alzira line (C2), the Benifario- Almussafes, Algemesi and Alzira stations are free of obstacles and debris and the sections between them are damaged, but not significantly.

On the 43 km Valencia-Buñol line (C3), the some 7 km of the Xirivella-Aldaia section has been cleared and Aldaia station is free of vehicles and obstacles. Meanwhile, the Loriguilla - Cheste - Chiva section has suffered significant damage, and work is continuing on the cleaning and inspection work.

On the 46 km Buñol-Utiel (C3), there is very significant damage to the platform, mainly on routes, while the stations will require minor work.

Machinery mobilised for work on the local trains network

Line C3 Valencia-Buñol Utiel, 43 machines:

• 2 cx vaiacars on site and 1 gondola for transporting
• 2 bivial dumpers and 1 gondola for transporting
• 1 self-loading truck
• 36 items of machinery equipment (machinery, lorry drivers)

Line C2 Valencia-Benifaio-Algemesí-Alzira, 27 machines:

• 7 vaiacares
• 1 mixed machine
• 4 rotating 20tns
• 2 bivial dumpers
• 3 front blades
  
• 1 self-loader
• 1 gondola
• 1 wheel loader
• 1 vaiacar
• 1 gondola machine delivery
• 2 dumper 10tns
• 1 retro-rotating machine
• 1 plain line tamper (with a six-person team)
• 1 profiling machine
• 1 traction machine

Regarding the high-speed line between Madrid and Valencia, progress is being made in laying the track inside the Chiva tunnel, having completed the platform formation works at both mouths and inside the Chiva tunnel. In the last days, work has been carried out on lifting the entire track, removing all the ballast and preparing the esplanade on both tracks.

Meanwhile, clean-up work continues in the Torrent tunnel, which was flooded by the heavy rains and has taken five days to drain. The structure is in better condition than expected.

Machinery mobilised for work on the high-speed line: 37 machines:

• 5 centaur machines
• 1 grader
• 1 dumper
• 1 compactor
• 5 swivel chain machines
• 6 light generators
• 1 wheel scraper
• 1 equipment with dip lorries
• 1 grader
• 1 compactor
• 1 wheel scraper
• 1 car loader
• 1 tanker truck
• 1 diplorys swivel
• 10 bathtubs (sub-basin, etc.)

Renfe jobs

Since the moment rail traffic was being affected by the rainstorms in the Valencian Community, Renfe has carried out various actions to assist passengers.

To this effect, from Tuesday 29 October to 4 November:

• A total of 30 buses and more than 150 taxis were hired to transport travellers to their destinations or homes.
• A total of 150 hotel rooms in Madrid and Valencia were booked on the night of Tuesday 29th and Wednesday 30th October.
• More than 1,000 refreshment bags were distributed to passengers on the high-speed trains that were stopped, and to the rest of the passengers on the affected medium, long distance and local train lines.
• Customer service staff at stations, on-board services and ground staff were strengthened with more than 200 people at València Norte, València Joaquín Sorolla and Madrid Chamartín stations from Tuesday night.

Since the afternoon of Friday 1 November, Renfe has been working to restore rail services to Valencia to facilitate mobility. Services have been re-established for:

• Euromed and freight
• Local trains on lines C5 and C6, which operate normally
• Medium distance trains between València-Castelló-Vinaròs and València-Teruel- Zaragoza
• Medium distance trains on the conventional Zaragoza-Caspe- Tarragona-Barcelona line
• València-Tortosa
• Alcázar de San Juan-Albacete-Xàtiva (without continuity to Valencia)

Non official translation