SPAIN: Metro de Madrid announced on May 19 that work had started on the construction of an extension of Line 5 to Madrid-Barajas airport.
The €181m project will involve the construction of 1·7 km of line in tunnel from Alameda de Osuna to the airport, where it will share the existing Line 8 station serving terminals T1, T2 and T3 which is to be remodellled.
The contractors are FCC, Sacyr and Becsa. A particular challenge comes from the need to avoid subsidence when boring under the M-11 and M-14 motorways, as the use of a TBM for such a short stretch of tunnel was deemed to not be economically viable.
Cut-and-cover tunnelling will be used at the airport, where Line 5 will terminate at a building designed by Estudio Lamela which is to be created on the western side of T2.
The lower level of the station shared with Line 8 will have four tracks and three platforms, and the 20 000 m³ station box will have a 1 630 m² glazed roof. Completion is scheduled for 2028.
Around 40 000 people work at the airport, which handled more than 66 million passengers in 2024.
