Sagrada Familia survives the tunnel

portada de El Periódico del 13 octubre 2010

13 October 2010 -  El Periódico de Catalunya Barcelona -  The Sagrada Familia survives the first AVE test," announces El Periódico de Catalunya, referring to Spain’s high speed train network - Alta Velocidad Española. The Barcelona daily reports on the project to build a high speed tunnel beneath one of Barcelona’s best loved landmarks, the Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family, designed by Gaudí. “Alea jacta est (the die has been cast),” El Periódico writes, now that digging work just four metres below the foundations has been given the green light. The project, which was opposed by religious institutions, neighbourhood associations and heritage groups, “prompted unprecedented institutional, social, and political controversy," El Periódico notes. 

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief-cover/359811-sagrada-familia-survives-tunnel

The High Court refused, for the fifth time, the suspension of the works next to the Sagrada Familia.

It details that, as of June 11, they already have made a total of 93 piles, which represent 89% of the total, that "any planned auscultation is operational and running smoothly" and that "to date they have not detected any anomaly".

The High Court refused, for the fifth time, the suspension of the works next to the Sagrada Familia.

The National Court has refused for a fifth time, the interim suspension of the AVE tunnel works that runs under the streets of Barcelona running a few metres from the foundation of the temple of the Sagrada Familia.

In an order issued by the Division of Administrative Litigation of the National Court, rejecting the request made by the Construction Board of the Temple of the Holy Family because "the new circumstances cited that nothing detracts from the reasons that supported the resolutions on precautionary measures. The Construction Board had submitted a new application for suspension of the work to see that there was a substantial change of circumstances, as the drilling of the tunnel started, some constructive objections contained in an interim report of UNESCO or the dangerousness of the work, among others.

However, the court again denied the stay of works based on favourable reports from ADIF on the status of the implementation of infrastructure, the pace of construction of the piles and the underground protective screen and the results of the systems control on the effects of the works in the temple.

It adds that the UNESCO report itself admits that "until now the tunnel and further measures have been designed in accordance with national and European legislation, and has taken into account all the important issues mentioned above." "In light of the evidence available so far justifies the refusal of the suspension collected again, with repetition of the safeguards contained in previous cases," concludes the Litigation Division of the National Court. 

 

http://www.barcelonareporter.com/index.php?/news/comments/the_high_court_refused_for_the_fifth_time_the_suspension_of_the_works_next_/

Barcelona: Rail tunnel near Gaudi's masterpiece delayed

Nova Zelanda - By Anita Brooks 11:00 AM Wednesday Jun 30, 2010 - For years, architects, engineers and Barcelona residents have been sounding the alarm: the Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's unfinished modernist masterpiece and Spain's top tourist site, could be endangered by a government plan to build a high-speed rail tunnel only 13ft (four metres) away.

Residents hung protest banners from windows. The architect in charge of turning Gaudi's blueprints into undulating, ceramic-coated reality called the tunnel "an attack on culture of the highest order".

Activists filmed a simulation of the 20,000-tonne building's collapse, its spindly, twisting towers and exuberant sculptures turned to dust. The digging started in March, nevertheless.

Now the worriers have won a small victory. The Spanish parliament has voted to suspend construction "immediately" as a cautionary measure while independent experts devise an alternate train route that would link Barcelona with the French border without jeopardising the work of "God's architect", which is soon to be consecrated by the Pope.

"The government should reconsider what it is doing," said Joan Rigol, chairman of the Sagrada Familia Foundation, which aims to finish the church Salvador Dali once called a "tactile erogenous zone" by 2025.

"The whole world thinks that there is a danger to the monument."

The vote is non-binding, but it exerts extra political pressure on the already beleaguered Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Following the vote, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Works vowed that construction of the rail tunnel will continue with rigorous security measures, which include an underground protective barrier only 7ft (2.1 metres) from the Sagrada Familia's foundations.

The minister, Jose Blanco, told parliament that starting from scratch with an alternate route would be too expensive and would delay Spain's high-speed link with the rest of Europe for two years.

"What good is democracy if the government ignores the will of the people?" said Pere Vallejo, head of the citizens' platform against the tunnel, after the vote.

Mr Vallejo's group is not only concerned with the future of Gaudi's work of art. He's also worried about the fate of the 18,000 flats, like his own, that are also in the train tunnel's path.

Faced with the government's intransigence, the 80,000 members of the international Gaudi Beatification Society might pray to the architect for miracles. After all, the monk-like Gaudi, who died not as a martyr but as a victim of a traffic accident in 1926 at the age of 74, is considered a strong candidate for sainthood, his sensual rendition of the gospel seen as a tool to convert non-believers.

But the Sagrada Familia Foundation isn't waiting for divine intervention. It is about to file its sixth official complaint in the Spanish High Court in the hope a judge will order construction to halt permanently.

Sagrada Familia architects and engineers fear that tunnel construction could shift the "slippery, sandy" ground beneath the church, which could cause part of the building to sink and lead to cracks, Mr Rigol said.

The vibrations of a bullet train could also damage the prized monument, a Unesco cultural heritage site that attracts three million visitors each year, especially Japanese tourists, the major donors to the church construction.

"Gaudi built without buttresses," he said.

"The roof is made of many small stones, a technique know as "trencadis", and any light movement could cause a great deal of damage."

A recent report by the International Council on Monuments and Sites praised the project for following EU technical and security standards, but called for an independent structural study of the building's foundations and urgent meeting between the Spanish government and Unesco heritage experts.

- INDEPENDENT

By Anita Brooks 
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10655468

S.O.S distress call from La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s temple, to all countries all over the World.

PRESS NOTE
12/18/2009

To defend the temple, civil society from the Catalan Cultural Heritage hung this morning a huge 25 meter long banner from one of the bell towers of the Nativity Façade of the Sagrada familia.

BARCELONA (December 18th, 2009).-
The “Junta Permanent en Defensa del Patrimoni de Catalunya” (Permanent Association for the defense of Catalan Heritage) has claimed this morning to have hung this morning a giant banner with the word S.O.S. from one of the temple’s towers. This monument from well known architect Gaudí, is not only the most emblematic of the city of Barcelona, it is also classified as World Heritage Site, according to UNESCO.

This urgent distress call from Catalan civil society to the international community responds to the threat of the high velocity train itinerary through the center of Barcelona, which puts at extreme high risk some unique world wide monuments such as the Sagrada Familia, the Pedrera (also by Gaudí), in addition to the homes and business of more than 53.000 Barcelona people.

According to the same Association « they only have built 15% of the tunnel so far (that is 807 meters of the total 5.640m). Therefore we still are on time to stop this
construction.” They also emphasize that the risk of having this tunnel so close to the Temple is very high, especially in light of some recent and serious executions errors made by ADIF, (the construction company in charge) who built the protective screen wall at 0,83m from the foundation of the temple, when it was agreed by the Government Ministry that the distance would not go less that 1,12m from it.

With this action they also want to denounce that the chosen itinerary is merely a political decision. From a technical point of view, and in particular from a geological
one, this public construction is highly dangerous because it is planned to go under the ground water level and therefore has been strongly advised against.

More over, this itinerary has been imposed upon, breaking all the basic elementary
rules of democracy. The votings that were done both at the Barcelona town Hall and at the Catalan Parliament have been opposed, with clear majority, to the high speed train going through the center of Barcelona. They opted instead for 3 other possible itineraries (which have been carefully studied and planned), which are quicker to build, much safer and also much cheaper than the one that has been imposed.
























Documents - Photographies:
Complete information document : dossier.pdf :

Links
http://www.facebook.com/salvemeltemple
http://www.cucadellum.org
http://www.avepellitoral.info
http://www.tgvnocenter.info

Press
For further information, please do contact:
Pere Vallejo – (+34) 679 61 61 61
avellitoral@gmail.com

Rubèn Novoa – (+ 34) 649 70 38 73
ruben@novoa.cat

The “Junta Permanent en Defensa del Patrimoni de Catalunya” is composed by a group of people who belong to different associations and platforms. It is directed by Mr. Josep Espar i Ticó.

Important warning about the eminent danger that threatens the temple of the Sagrada Familia

Red: screen wall - plan 42 meters deep pilots

The architecture of the Temple is very daring because it is unique and totally original. Nothing like that has ever been built. It is the heaviest building of the city of Barcelona. It is already surrounded by two underground subways, and now they want to build a third tunnel for the high speed train, at a fourth of the distance of the other two from the foundations of the temple. In addition, this last tunnel will go in a very different subsoil. Much deeper and much more dangerous. Without any previous experience of what could happen there.

What is sure however is that there have been previous difficulties and problems in the past two years, which are directly related with the construction and the arrival of the high speed train to the Sants train station in Barcelona.

There is also what is currently happening with the 9 underground line they are building, where a T.B.M (Tunnel boring machine) has been stucked underground for several months now.

Let’s not forget the recent Cologne disaster. (March 3rd, 09) : the tunnel they were doing for the underground made the historical building collapse. A few months later, in Amsterdam, a house also collapsed because of the construction of a tunnel, also for the underground.

The screen wall of the temple which is planned and is already in process, is only 75cm far from the T.B.M. The protective screens is 1,50m wide and it’s piles are only 50cm from each other. In addition they have to go as deep as 42 meters. Considering this distance, -and in spite of what technicians of the T.B.M maintain- it is almost impossible that these piles maintain their verticality and don’t divert. We have done some test in the Sagrada Familia square, where there are no buildings. The risk of collision between them is real and the same risk exists with the foundations of the temple and the T.B.M.