Plans for Spain - Morocco tunnel surface again: new seismological study of seabed in Strait of Gibraltar

The Spanish government has put out to tender the lease of, with an option to purchase, four seismometers to study the seabed of the Strait of Gibraltar as part of the feasibility project for the construction of a tunnel linking Spain with Morocco, which has gained renewed interest in recent years as a result of the new era of diplomacy in the bilateral relationship.

To be precise, the Sociedad Española de Estudios para la Comunicación Fija a través del Estrecho de Gibraltar (Secegsa), the consulting company specifically set up for this purpose and charged with leading the feasibility studies on behalf of Spain's Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, has published the tender for the lease of four seismometers on the official government platform for such tendering and contracting.

According to Secegsa, what is being sought is the supply of four ocean bed seismometers (OBS) for the 'Capitán de Navío Manuel Catalán Morollón' research project on the seismotectonics in the Strait of Gibraltar, which will be carried out over six months once the equipment has been delivered to the navy's Royal Institute and Observatory in San Fernando (Cadiz).

Taking into account the characteristics of both the winds and the currents in the Strait of Gibraltar, a series of technical conditions are required for the measurements to be taken by the OBSs and a prior acceptance test will be carried out. The contract is worth almost 488,000 euros, includingtaxes.

In 1980, Spain and Morocco signed an agreement on the Europe-Africafixedlinkproject, under which two national consulting companies were set up to study the feasibility of this tunnel project: Secegsa on the Spanish side and the Société Nationale d'Etudes du Detroit de Gibraltar (SNED) on the Moroccan side.

Since then, several studies have been carried out to "understand the difficulties of the site from a geological, oceanographic, seismic and meteorological point of view", as Secegsa explains on its website. Thus far, deep soundings have been taken on land and geotechnical tests have been carried out by excavating a full-scale underwater trench near Tangier, as well as another trench on land near Tarifa.

In terms of seismographics, another deployment of three seismometers took place in 2014 in collaboration with ships from the Spanish navy, as mentioned in the technical specifications of the current tender for four OBSs.

Thanks to all these studies, several options for both bridges and tunnels to connect the two sides of the Strait of Gibraltar were assessed, and the final choice was a tunnel between Punta Paloma, near Tarifa, and Punta Malabata near Tangiers measuring 38.5 kilometres long, of which 27.7 kilometres would be underwater and which would be made up of two railway tunnels.

The project has regained political momentum as a result of the new era of diplomacy reached in the bilateral relationship between both nations. This began in April2022 with the meeting between Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and King Mohammed VI following Spain's expression of support for Morocco's autonomy plan for the Sahara region, which put an end to a serious diplomatic crisis.

In this regard, during the high-level meeting (RAN) between Spain and Morocco held in February 2023 in Rabat, the then Minister of Transport Raquel Sánchez announced that a new impetus would be given to thestudies of what she described as a "strategic project" for the two countries.

In April of the same year, the project was reactivated with the holding of a virtual meeting of the joint Spanish-Moroccan committee former for this matter, although Spain's Ministry of Transport made it clear that for the time being it is only a matter of conducting feasibility studies and that any decision to go ahead with the tunnel would require the signing of new agreements between the two countries.

The joint holding of the 2030 World Cup by Spain, Portugal and Morocco has generated new interest in the project. On its website Secegsa stresses that "the creation of the so-called 'fixed link' will lead to unprecedented economic and social development for the adjacent areas of Andalucía and northern Morocco. Moreover, that it will promote the growth of transport networks between Spain and Morocco and will create an unprecedented area of cooperation between the European Union and the Maghreb."