Part of the Madrid-Castilla la Mancha-Comunidad Valenciana-Región de Murcia High Speed Line, it is one of the most unique and technically difficult sections given the complex terrain and the natural and environmental constraints of the area where it is almost entirely located, the Contreras Reservoir. Of the 6,523.528 m long section between the municipalities of Minglanilla in the province of Cuenca and Villargordo del Cabriel in the province of Valencia, 1.6 km is the three viaducts and 3.89 km the three tunnels. The work was carried out by UTE Contreras (Azvi and San José). The section begins with a slope towards the Contreras Reservoir at the Hoya de Roda Tunnel. It is the longest of the section (1,999 m) and has three areas of false tunnel. In addition, given its length, the tunnel has an emergency exit at approximately the middle of the tunnel. The route continues along the Cuesta Negra Viaduct, with a length of 220 m, most of it on solid ground, with 5 piers with a maximum height of 19.2 m. The deck, with spans of 40 m, is constructed using porticoed formwork. The deck, with 40-metre spans, is built using lattice girders. Next comes the most spectacular project, the Viaduct over the Contreras Reservoir which, with a length of 587.25 m, an arch bridge with a span of 261 m and a free height of 37 m above the water, has set the record in Spain and Europe for the largest arch in a railway bridge on a concrete structure. It was constructed with successive cantilevers supported by temporary bracing using ultra-resistant concrete. Once at the reservoir, the ascent begins at the Rabo de la Sartén Tunnel, 392.67 m long, located on a limestone peninsula of the reservoir. At this point, the main constraint was the proximity of the route of the A-3 motorway, which made it necessary to build a screen of piles and micro-piles to bridge the difference in level with the motorway and to excavate the new tunnel using controlled micro-blasting and mechanical means (backhoes with large-tonnage hydraulic hammers) to minimise vibrations and not affect the existing tunnel. The process was thoroughly monitored with the installation of complex technical equipment consisting of seismographs, rock deformation measuring equipment and auscultation instruments. The last viaduct is the Istmo Viaduct. It is 830 m long and was also a difficult viaduct to plan, given that its layout slightly encroaches into the reservoir at different depths. It has a total of 10 spans and the piles, with a height varying between 21 and 70 m, are founded on 1.80 m diameter piles at a variable depth to adapt to the existing geological formations, except for four of them which are superficially founded. The 66 m spanning deck is constructed using self-bracing. Contreras Reservoir-
Villargordo del Cabriel Section Hoya de Roda Tunnel
Cuesta Negra Viaduct
Cuesta Negra Viaduct
Viaduct over the Contreras Reservoir
Rabo de la Sartén Tunnel
Istmo Viaduct
1
SECTIONS
6.52
KM
3
VIADUCTS
3
TUNNELS
