The Port Authority signs the contract for the execution of the drying screens and the emptying of the access tunnel to the New Container Terminal.

The president of the Bay of Cadiz Port Authority (APBC), Teófila Martínez Saiz, has signed the contract for the execution of the screens of the drying piles and the emptying of the access tunnel to the New Container Terminal, with Constructora San José, S.A., selected as the best bid during the bidding process.

The execution period for this project, whose budget amounts to 1.96 million euros, excluding VAT, is 7 months from the signing of the restatement act, which will be carried out at the beginning of May, once the contract has been signed.

This operation is essential in order to complete the execution of the access to the New Container Terminal which, as is known, has been affected for months by a water channel that keeps the part of the tunnel under construction flooded.

After carrying out soundings and studies in the area, it was determined that it was necessary to execute screens of drying piles, consisting of concrete piles whose structural section intersects with each other, geometrically drying circles. In this way, an external water barrier is created. It will also be necessary to carry out controlled injections of cement and a structural reinforcement of the existing screens in that area. After that, the tunnel will be emptied and the water table control pumps will be maintained.

Once these works have been completed, the state of the tunnel will be analysed and the second phase of the access project to the New Container Terminal will be undertaken, the drafting of which has already been awarded.

As will be remembered, the contract for the work was resolved with the construction company awarded for various problems in its execution, so it was necessary to raise the drafting of a new project for the completion of the access tunnel.

Land accessibility to the new terminal, however, is guaranteed: until the tunnel is operational the passage of trucks and vehicles will be made on the surface through the facilities of Navantia, thanks to an agreement between the factory and the APBC.