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  The key role of underground infrastructures in the recent transformation of the city of Bilbao

  The urban transformation of Bilbao in the last thirty years has been exemplary, shifting from an industrial city to a friendly city based on culture and services. This internationally recognised success (Bilbao has recently been named European City of the Year at the 2018 Urbanism Awards) can be explained by a coordinated and multidisciplinary collaboration from very diverse spheres that have developed investments and projects in many areas: museums including the Guggenheim; strategic equipment, such as the Bilbao Port extension and the new Athletic Club stadium; large-scale transportation facilities, such as the Metropolitan Southern Bypass or the latest Bilbao Underground extensions; and urban renewal projects, such as the restoration of degraded areas in the riverbanks of the Nervion estuary, the opening-up of the Deusto channel and the new urban development at Zorrotzaurre.This transformation, which is taking place today, has recently reached one of its latest stages with the inauguration of the “New Accesses to Bilbao through San Mames”. The construction of these new road accesses, in which underground infrastructures play a key role, has permitted the demolition of the viaducts in Sabino Arana Avenue, enabling the return to the city of more than 30,000 m2. This way this area, formerly subjected to severe road traffic pressure, has been reconverted for pedestrian use, in compliance with the latest urban planning guidelines.The construction works of the “New Accesses to Bilbao through San Mames” outline a new access to the Biscayne capital, more friendly and integrated in the urban layout. It has incorporated different elements from the very early design stage in order to hide substantially the infrastructure, including 4 cut and cover tunnels, 4 viaducts, one conventional tunnel, a pedestrian emergency walkway and the burying of a 0.4-kilometre-long section of the A8 highway. The works have been completed in a densely populated area without causing any major disorder to the highway capacity, with an average daily traffic of more than 100,000 vehicles. The budget totals 156 M€, with a contract period of 5 years.Apart from these abovementioned road accesses to Bilbao, tunnels will also play a central role in the following transport system strategic projects in the area, currently at design stage: Metro Bilbao Line 3 extension between Casco Viejo and the airport; the Access towards the Abando Station of the high-speed railway connection of the Basque Country and the new underground freight rail bypass between Bilbao Port and the French border.

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