The ADIF Alta Velocidad entity has begun operations to install the rail and sleepers on the Mérida-Badajoz section of the Madrid-Extremadura High Speed Line, as part of the track assembly works that are underway in this section.
Specifically, the assembly of the track between Mérida and Badajoz is carried out over 31.7 kilometers, including the new high-speed platform and connections with the conventional Ciudad Real-Badajoz line at kilometer points 464/551 and 496 / 354 for access to Mérida and Badajoz stations, respectively.
These works have started from the Guadiana station, where the connection between the conventional line and the high-speed line is made, beginning its advance towards Badajoz and, later, towards the capital of Emerita.
Thus, these actions are in addition to the track assembly operations carried out between Cáceres and Mérida, which have a “very advanced” state of execution, as explained by ADIF in a press release.
The track is assembled in Iberian width (1,668 m) and with multipurpose sleepers, valid both for this width and for the international width (1,435 mm), interchangeably. In this way, “in the future the track gauge may be modified by means of a simple operation,” adds ADIF.
At the same time, the entity stresses that the assembly of the track in this section represents an “important advance” for the connection of Extremadura to the high-speed network, through a “new” high-speed platform between Plasencia and Badajoz, “in 2019 “.
