The board of directors of Puertos del Estado, under the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, has approved an update to the 2025-2029 investment plan of the Autoridad Portuaria de A Coruña with an additional 11.6 million euros from the European Next Generation funds for the construction of the railway access to the outer port in Punta Langosteira. These additional 11.6 million euros, coming from reallocations of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (RRM) funds by the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, will allow financing the update of actions planned within the framework of the development of this railway access. The global budget necessary to carry out this project, fundamental for the development and competitiveness of the outer port, is around 160 million euros.
Recently, the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, announced more than 705 million euros in investments in the five ports of the state-owned port system in Galicia from 2025 to 2029. Specifically, A Coruña is the port of general interest in Galicia that will receive the most investment in this period, with more than 362 million euros planned, that is, practically half of the total 705 million planned for this community, with the railway access to the outer port of Punta Langosteira and the extension of the internal railway access being the main projects.
On February 4, 2022, the agreement for the development of the railway access to the outer port of A Coruña was signed by the Ministry of Transport, ADIF, Puertos del Estado and the Autoridad Portuaria de A Coruña. This agreement entrusted ADIF-AV with the contracting of the projected railway works, including the tender, award, execution and management of those and of the other contracts necessary for their achievement, referring to the main works of the railway connection, which are developed between the Eje Atlántico and the physical connection point with the service area of the port.
Excavation of the tunnels
Additionally, and to provide full functionality to the access, it has been necessary to include in the investment project for the access a series of actions for the extension and integration of systems within the port, whose contracting and execution is directly handled by the Autoridad Portuaria de A Coruña. The works for the railway access to the Outer Port of A Coruña have already surpassed one of their main milestones: the completion of the drilling of all the tunnels and galleries of the project. In total, 7.4 kilometers of tunnels and galleries have been excavated, for a railway access that has a total length of 6.7 kilometers between its ends: the outer port and the junction with the Eje Atlántico at the height of the Vío industrial estate.
Tunnel 1, the main structure of the project with its 3,739 meters in length, will have three evacuation galleries of 729, 716 and 685 meters respectively. The tunnel and galleries are excavated and the lining work is currently being undertaken. Furthermore, the railway access to the outer port of A Coruña has two other tunnels: on one hand, tunnel 2, 774 meters long, excavated and lined, with the evacuation sidewalks under construction.
And tunnel 3, 743 meters long, which completes the ‘Y’ bifurcation of tunnel 1 for the southbound connection with the Eje Atlántico, thanks to the construction of the so-called Bifurcation Cavern, a large-scale structure with an excavation 25 meters wide and 11 meters high at its maximum point. This cavern allows the connection between tunnels 1 and 3, both with a free excavation section of 52 square meters.
The standard section of the tunnels, in addition to the railway facilities, will house other elements necessary for operation which are currently under construction, such as sidewalks for access and pedestrian transit, drainage systems, cable ducts and conduits for communications, as well as ventilation, lighting and fire-fighting systems. Furthermore, in the Vío area, work continues to prepare the connection platform with the Eje Atlántico.
