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The collapse of a tunnel being excavated to extend Line 5 of
the Barcelona Metro on January 27 2005 was just the beginning of a nightmare for
the residents of the working class neighborhood of El Carmel in Barcelona.
Several dozen locals were evacuated from their homes due to the damage to their
buildings caused by the collapse. Four days later, the government of Catalonia
assured those affected that they could return to their homes, only to later stop
the return due to a new collapse that severely damaged several buildings, which
have had to be demolished. Catalan prime minister Pasqual Maragall visited the
district and compared the events with the ecological disaster caused by the oil
tanker Prestige three years ago in Galicia. After Maragall's visit, one thousand
now-homeless residents were rehoused.
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| Carmel: the effects of tunneling
close to the unknown fault line |
Critics assert that the Metro tunnel was excavated without
having performed a geological study of the terrain and that a method rejected as
unsafe by the Madrid autonomous region was used. A parliamentary investigation
has concluded that the the blame should be shared between the surveyors,
builders and the Catalonia regional government's construction authority GISA -
effectively the 'owner' of the project and therefore carrying the ultimate
responsibility. As a response, the residents of El Carmel have created a webpage
in order to collect the complaints of the more than 15,000 affected.
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| Carmel: the tunnel has now been
filled with concrete |
The Carmel evacuation zone : 84 buildings affected
Sources:
La Vanguardia
Spain
Herald
SpainMedia.com
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