Central Athens northbound railway line’s undergrounding to be tendered for 109mn euros

A long-desired railway project for Athens municipality is finally set to be fulfilled by ERGOSE. According to information, that verify previous reports of Ypodomes.com, by Summer 2017, the tender of “Sepolia Tunnel”, the underground link that will be connecting Athens Central Railway Station with “3 Bridges” interchange, with an electrified quad track, will be finally taking place.

This project is considered to be “mature”, in terms of design and environmental licensing. Till very recently though, the missing piece of the puzzle was its funding, an obstacle that was tackled as CEF funding tool (Connecting Europe Facility) was utilized recently.

The project’s budget, according to the figures made known so far, is 109mn euros. It is a project with secured financial support due to its usefulness and strategic position within the capital’s urban grid. It is noteworthy that another 2 major railway projects in the country are implemented via CEF and these would be Tithorea-Domokos (Central Greece) section on P.A.Th.E. corridor and the infrastructure works for Rododafni-Psathopyrgos in Peloponnese.

The undergrounding of the railway section between Athens Central R.S. and Three Bridges IC will reverse the city’s bisection for that specific part and will allow extensive redevelopment work in a generally ran down and downgraded area. The overall length of the undergrounding will be 2.36 km and must be carried out with surgical precision as along the way it crosses with Athens’ main water pipe.

Second undergrounding under consideration

OSE has also started implementing project studies regarding the undergrounding of Rouf-Athens section. Essentially, the section between Petrou Ralli Ave. and Lenorman completes the original proposal for the railway line’s undergrounding in the heart of the city, while supplementary tunneling works will extend the undergrounded section all the way to Rouf Station, passing above Kerameikos existing Metro Station of Line 3 (with the addition of a new, synonymous interchange railway station).

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

Follow Nikos Karagiannis on Twitter