The maritime proposal for El Prat: a new solution but based on proven technologies

BarcelonaIt is necessary to act on the infrastructure of the airport to be able to fly up to 12,000 km away from Barcelona without making stopovers. It is necessary to have two runways of about 3,500 meters, one for landings (the current runway of terra), and one for take-offs, without this affecting the surrounding population due to noise, and without impacting the environmentally sensitive areas of lagoons and wet spaces, the Ricarda and the Remolar, in the Llobregat delta. The solution is to build a track supported on pylons which, at a height of 10 meters above the sea, allows the free circulation of the waves. For identical reasons, sea currents are not affected and, therefore, neither is the circulation of sand on the beaches in the area.

The track is built on a reinforced concrete slab supported by a structure of transverse and longitudinal beams. It is this structure that is supported by pylons nailed to the bottom. The depth on which the pylons are placed is 30 meters and the method has been extensively tested: there are thousands of them in the North Sea supporting offshore wind turbines. The efforts to which they are subjected are horizontal reactions, produced by the force of the wind on the wind turbines, and vertical, by the weight of the wind turbine. The efforts to which the pylons supporting the track board would be subjected would be lower.

The track, which would run parallel to the coast, would be located 1.5 km inland so that the noise would not affect the towns of Gavà and Castelldefels”

The board supported on pylons must be about 4,700 meters long by 400 meters wide to be able to have the take-off runway and support it in an identical way to how they are now located at Barcelona airport. The runway is obviously connected to the current airport.

The solution – new but based on proven technologies – has been specifically defined by specialist engineers.

The runway, which would run parallel to the coast, would be located 1.5 km inland so that the noise would not affect the towns of Gavà and Castelldefels and to avoid the interference of the cranes on the docks and piers of the port. The zero impact of noise on the environment will allow Barcelona to operate cargo 24×7, which, together with the proximity of the port, is a significant logistical advantage. The total cost of the improvement is about 2.1 billion euros and the construction time 4 years.

In Japan, in a densely populated area, numerous airports – Kyoto, Osaka, etc. – have been built on artificial islands. This forces millions of cubic meters of earth and stone to be moved and settled with three inevitable effects. The high cost of the work, the time required for the settlement of the spills and the ecological damage created by the manufacturing of an artificial island that affects the waves and sea currents and changes the environmental conditions of the area. This technical solution was considered in the past in Barcelona and was abandoned due to the disadvantages mentioned.

The bottom on which the pylons would be placed is a sedimentary area with banal settlements as a result of the sediments carried by the Llobregat River. It is proposed to regenerate the area by surrounding the pylons with marine life regeneration structures. This would have a positive effect on biodiversity, enhanced by the effect of hard structures (pylons) on the current soft bottoms.

Eight prestigious ecologists were consulted and all gave a positive assessment. If it were decided to develop this initiative, it would require more in-depth impact studies.

There would be no need to build new terminals in Barcelona, ​​but communication between T1 and T2 would have to be improved.”

The proposed solution does not affect the plan of areas of natural interest of Catalonia (PEIN) of the Llobregat delta, nor the terrestrial Special Protection Area for Birds (ZEPA) of the Natura 200 Network, nor does it affect the habitats of greater interest for nesting, breeding, feeding and shelter for birds, nor the protected natural spaces of the Natural Reserves of Ricarda, of Remolar, nor the Site of Community Interest (LIC) of the XN2000. The runway over the sea would only affect the maritime ZEPA of the Llobregat delta.

One of the strongest criticisms of the action on the airport is the disproportionate increase in traffic that this may entail. Today there are 50 million passengers in Barcelona. The actions taken should modulate this growth. The way to do this is by improving the planned communication between Girona and Reus airports with Barcelona. AVE stations are planned at these two airports for 2026 and 2028, attached to the airport terminals. What would be needed, in order to promote this displacement of flights, is for there to be a high frequency of AVE so that the waiting time for passengers is minimal.

There is no need to build new terminals in Barcelona, ​​but the communication between T1 and T2 should be improved, so that the passenger could check in at one terminal or the other regardless of where the boarding gate It would also be necessary to expand T2 minimally to increase boarding gates for large aircraft, wide bodies. All these actions underline the suitability of placing emphasis on the management of existing infrastructures, rather than on building new ones.

These ideas do not constitute a project, but they do justify that this alternative be evaluated among others when the time comes.