€6 billion underwater tunnel could connect Spain and Morocco by 2030

It was recently reported that financial and strategic feasibility studies are currently underway for a very ambitious underwater tunneling project that would connect the European and African continents through the Strait of Gibraltar.

The idea behind this project has existed for almost a century now. More specifically, the first studies explored the idea of an underwater tunnel connection between Spain and Morocco in the 1930s, under the initiative of the former, and consisted of identifying the crossing’s geology.

These studies discovered the existence of very hard rock under the Strait of Gibraltar, which could not be excavated with the technology that existed at the time.

Hence, the alternative of an immersed tunnel was proposed, but came out empty due to the Straight’s geomorphology, where its deepest point coincides with the shortest distance across and reaches as deep as about 900 meters below the water surface.

In 1979, King Juan Carlos I of Spain and King Hassan I of Morocco officially initiated the project by signing an agreement that aimed at boosting relations between Europe and Africa.

Lombardi Engineering was then contracted in 2006 to create a draft design for a railway tunnel, where they described the project as comparable to but more complex than the Channel Tunnel.

Namely, they discovered two deep Quaternary clay channels halfway between the crossing, in addition to the existence of the major Azores–Gibraltar Transform Fault.

In 2009, some proposals for the “Europe-Africa Gibraltar Strait fixed link” were made, but they were once again futile.

However, in the light of the 2030 football World Cup that will be held jointly by Spain, Portugal and Morocco, initiatives for the underwater tunnel’s construction are resurfacing, and have been heavily influenced by the 2018 inauguration of Morocco’s first high speed rail line.

In late April, the Moroccan National Company for Strait Studies (SNED) said that work has begun exploring financing and strategic elements regarding the project, while last year the Spanish government dedicated €2.3 million to a feasibility study.

The proposed alignment is said to stretch 28 kilometers underwater, reaching 475 meters below sea level, while its cost is currently speculated to be somewhere between €6 billion and €8 billion.

Finally, if the project goes ahead, it would be scheduled for delivery before the World Cup in 2030, and it would transport 12.8 million passengers and 13 million tons of cargo per year.